The Editor, Sir:

Last week, on a visit to the doctor, I sat beside a little boy whose mother was visiting the same doctor.

When his mother went in to see the doctor, the little boy and I started talking and I was so extremely impressed with how intelligent he sounded and his flawless speech, that I asked him what school he attended. I was dumbstruck when he told me that he attended Bull Bay All-Age School.

Later, he told me that he was six years old and that he was in grade two and had mastered the Grade Four Test. I asked him to read and, to my surprise, he took up a recent copy of Newsweek and read so fluently that I had to commend him.

When his mother came out of the doctor's surgery, I asked her whether she has sent him to a preparatory school and had transferred him to Bull Bay All-Age School recently, and she proudly told me he was a product of the public education system!

It seems that there are pockets of excellence in the public education system in Jamaica and we need to celebrate them!

I am, etc.,

ANNA SCHWAB

Cherry Gardens, St Andrew