Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter

ATTENDING classes at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus, is a privilege of which most Jamaicans can only dream. But for a group of about 40 inner-city children, it has become a habit.

Every Saturday they head to room SR10 for CXC mathematics classes. Despite the prestige of the institution and the challenges associated with the subject, it is free of cost.

Extra lessons for mathematics and other subjects can cost up to $1,000 per hour. All that is required in this class is the desire to learn and the discipline to prepare for classes by reading the topic and practising the exercises before classes.

"Some of the things that I didn't know, that I did not understand in class, I am getting to know better," said Junior Brown, an 18-year-old Trench Town High school fifth-form student.

Like other students attending the class, young Brown believes that, were it not for the Saturday classes at UWI, the possibility of passing CXC mathematics would have seemed far-fetched.

"I believe that I now have a good chance of passing mathematics in January because of this class," he told The Gleaner.

Last Saturday was spent learning ratio and proportion, a topic their teacher Damion Crawford said some people find difficult, but one which he regards as very easy. One obvious ratio was an even 1:1 of males to females in the air-conditioned classroom.

Sanction mechanism

Despite this, a few students ended the class with a few strikes behind their names - a sanction mechanism developed by Crawford to get the best out of the students. Students get strikes if they do not attempt questions in the class, are late for the class, or have not done their homework. A student who accumulates five strikes will be disqualified from - with Crawford paying for each candidate - sitting CXC mathematics in January.

Crawford, who lectures tourism and marketing at the UWI, told The Gleaner that volunteering his time with the young students is something that he feels led to do.

"I have benefited from education and I think I have a responsibility to help educate others," said Crawford, while calling on other Jamaicans to do the same in their community.

The Gleaner sat in the class for almost the entire three-hour session and detected a cordial relationship between the teacher and the students as they teamed up to conquer mathematics. However, as to what the fate of the students will be, everyone with interest will have to wait until the results of the January CXC results are published.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com