THE National Education Inspectorate 2020 report has revealed significant improvement across all eight indicators of school effectiveness in the 653 schools inspected between September 2015 and June 2019.
The schools are graded on overall effectiveness, leadership and management, teaching in support of students’ learning, students’ progress, students’ personal and social development, human and material resources, curriculum and enhancement programmes and students safety, security, health and well-being.
The ratings vary from needing immediate support to unsatisfactory, satisfactory, good and exceptionally high.
In a report obtained by the Jamaica Observer, which shows the lists of schools with significant improvement since baseline inspection, it was revealed that five institutions received exceptionally high scores moving from a baseline rating of satisfactory.
The institutions include Kingston College which moved from a baseline rating of satisfactory to a current rating of exceptionally high in the leadership and management category. In the area of students’ progress, both Holland High and Wolmer’s Boys School moved from a baseline rating of satisfactory to exceptionally high. For students’ social and personal development, Ginger Hill All Age moved from satisfactory to exceptionally high, while for human and material resources St Andrew High moved from satisfactory to exceptionally high.
In the category of overall effectiveness, seven schools inspected received an unsatisfactory baseline rating, while eight received a baseline rating indicating need for immediate support. For the current ratings, the seven unsatisfactory baseline ratings moved to good. These schools are Albion Primary, Dunrobin Primary, Jonathan Grant High, Lime Hall Primary, Morant Bay Primary, Port Maria Primary and Richmond Park Primary.
The eight schools with baseline ratings highlighting a need for immediate support improved to current ratings of satisfactory. Those schools are Bellevue Primary and Junior High, Camberwell Primary, Marie Cole Memorial Primary, Mount Grace Primary and Junior High, Padmore Primary, Sheffield All Age, Spanish Town High and Treadlight Primary.
But an area that remains a point of concern for the chief inspector of the National Education Inspectorate (NEI) is leadership and management within schools. Last month, NEI chief inspector, Maureen Dwyer pointed out that in school leadership and management, the disparity in unsatisfactory leadership and management across the six education administrative regions is as much as 20 percentage points, which she deemed worrying.
Those findings show that 17 per cent of Kingston schools, 26 per cent of schools in the Port Antonio region, six per cent of schools in the Brown’s Town region, 20 per cent of schools in the Montego Bay region, 11 per cent in the Mandeville region and 19 per cent in the Old Harbour region had unsatisfactory leadership and management scores.
One of the recommendations from Dwyer was that efforts at building leadership capacity in schools should be accelerated, with more attention being given to on-going leadership coaching and mentorship. In addition, she recommended stronger emphasis be placed on the role of principals as active partners in Jamaica’s national development.
However, 28 schools graded unsatisfactory for leadership and management at the time of the baseline rating moved up two spaces on the scale to secure good scores for the current rating. Similarly, the five of the six schools rated as needing immediate support at the baseline ratings are now graded satisfactory. One school, Padmore Primary, which was initially graded as in need of immediate support, moved up three spaces on the scale to a current rating of good. Kingston College moved from satisfactory to exceptionally high in this category.
“We are seeing an improvement in leadership in the schools. Generally leadership has improved but there is still room for improvement in accountability. That’s one thing, but also improvement in the management and leadership of instruction,” Dwyer told the Sunday Observer during an interview.
The NEI chief inspector added: “We want to get away from the deficit model that focuses a lot on the students and what they can’t do and how they come in (start schools) to a point where it has used that data and turn it into a plan of how you’re going to help them to make progress.”
Dwyer also pointed out that she recognises the concerns of many school leaders about the quality of students at the secondary level but appealed to school leaders and educators to seek out areas that students may be better at and propel efforts there.
“They say the students are not ready for secondary learning or to access the secondary curriculum. The truth is you have to look to see what are they good at and what do I need to intensify to get them to be as well as they can and note my phrase ‘as well as they can’. So people who are focused on instruction and learning, spend time on that – knowing the crop of students you have and planning to see how best they can improve,” she explained.
The indicator that addresses teaching in support of students learning saw nine schools improving in their ratings. Of the nine institutions, two moved from needing immediate support to satisfactory. They are Bellevue Primary and Junior High and Treadlight Primary. The seven remaining schools moved from unsatisfactory to good. They are Albion Primary, Breadnut Hill Primary, Bryce Primary, John Austin All Age, Jonathan Grant High, McNie All Age and Richmod Park Primary.
With regards to students’ progress, five schools showed improvement. Denbigh High, Fairfield primary and Sanguinetti Primary moved from unsatisfactory to good, while Holland High and Wolmer’s Boys School moved from satisfactory to exceptionally high.
As for students’ personal and social development four of the five schools showing improvement, moved from unsatisfactory to good. They are Camperdown Primary, Dunrobin Primary, Ferncourt Primary and Treadlight Primary. Under this indicator Ginger Hill All Age moved from satisfactory to exceptionally high.
With the exception of St Andrew High which moved from satisfactory to exceptionally high in the human and material resources indicator, the remaining schools in that category moved from satisfactory to good. For curriculum enhancement programmes and the students’ safety, security, health and wellbeing indicator majority of the schools moved from an unsatisfactory rating to good.
Additional reporting on pages 24,25
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