42 students were able to obtain their high school diploma through the Ministry of Education’s Secondary Summer School Programme this year after initially failing to meet the necessary secondary-level graduation requirements.
Education Minister Honourable Sharie De Castro made the reveal while presenting a statement on the Programme to the House of Assembly.
“There were 42 students from the Elmore Stoutt High School and the Virgin Islands School of Technical Studies who attended summer school because they were failing one or two subjects for the school year. Of the 42 students, 36 students were successful in passing the subjects that they were registered for. This shows an 85 percent success rate for students’ credit recovery”, she said.
“There were 56 Grade 12 students at the end of last school year who were unsuccessful in completing their secondary level graduation requirements. I am so pleased to share that because of the summer school programme, 42 of those students were able to successfully complete their graduation requirements and were able to receive their high school diploma by the end of the summer. This included 35 students from the Elmore Stoutt High School, students from the Virgin Islands School of Technical Studies and 4 students from the Bregado Flax Educational Centre Secondary Division. I commend these amazing young people for their diligence and perseverance and I wish them well in their continued educational pursuits and out in the world of work”, De Castro added.
While providing some background on the circumstances which guided the formation of this year’s program, De Castro explained that the ministry sprang into action on the heels of a 25 percent failure rate at the Exit Proficiency Examination.
She said that a major consideration was offering students an alternative to doing an additional year of secondary education.
“There was a total of 224 students enrolled in Grade 12 at public secondary schools. Of the total, 168 students or 75 percent were successful and 56 or 25 percent were unsuccessful in completing their secondary level graduation requirements. With about 25 percent of the graduating class not meeting graduation requirements, this was cause for concern. On close examination of the students’ results, it was noted that the majority of these Grade 12 students were missing one or two components of the graduation requirements, either credits in a subject or subjects, failing one subject for the Exit Proficiency Examination (EPE) or a combination of both. It was therefore determined that running a summer school programme for four weeks for the month of July where students could have a concentrated time to work on the one or two areas would be beneficial. It would give the students the opportunity to complete their high school journey and receive their secondary school diploma rather than return to secondary school for another year”, she explained.
This year, for the first time, the ministry allowed year 11 students to also participate in the Summer School Program. This, De Castro explained, was an effort to allow students to get ahead of the upcoming school year.
“What was a new initiative this year with the summer school programme was to engage students from Grade 11 in summer classes. In the past, the summer session accommodated Grade 12 students only. This year, grade 11 students were also able to utilise this concentrated period of time to focus on successfully completing a credit or EPE requirement. I see this as a step in the right direction. As we move forward with reform, the updated policy for credit recovery and summer programmes will reflect this adjustment”, she said. ‘
De Castro dubbed the successful summer program as one of the many ways in which the Ministry of Education is seeking to support the needs of students and assist them in achieving their God-given potential.