Letter to the Gleaner Editor

I write in response to the article published in your paper on March 19, 2009 entitled “Non-traditionals trump' established' schools - Top 28% of 'older' institutions”. This article is totally misleading and the Ministry of Education continues to pull a fast one over the general public.

The article claims that “Jonathan Grant, Old Harbour, Denbigh and Lewisville high schools had more than 70 per cent of their subject entries receiving passing grades”. When one examines the data and looks at success rate in Math and English Language it tells a different story. These are the only two compulsory subjects island wide and are therefore best used to compare school performance at CSEC. The success of a school cannot be measured by the pass rate of those who sat the exam; rather it must be of the pass rate of the entire Grade 11 cohort (total number of students in Grade 11 and therefore eligible to sit the exam) as is used in the Task Force Report on Education Reform. In the case of English Language the pass rate varied from 4% at Lewisville to 41% at Denbigh; while for Math it varied from 3% to 17%. Defining the pass rate based on the number of students who actually sat the exam is the Ministry's way of falsely claiming it has achieved anything.