Richard Powell (left), group president and CEO, Victoria Mutual Building Society, speaks with Minister of Education Andrew Holness (centre) and Earl Jarrett, general manager of Jamaica National Building Society, during the Mutual Building Societies Foundation launch at the Hilton Kingston hotel yesterday. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

The Mutual Building Societies Foundation, which is a collaborative effort between two of the oldest building societies in Jamaica - Jamaica National and Victoria Mutual - yesterday launched its $100 million education initiative, Creating Centres of Excellence, at the Hilton Kingston hotel in New Kingston.

The initiative is aimed at bringing balance and equity to the education system, which has been classified as a two-tiered system with a constant battle between the traditional and non-traditional high schools.

The programme will provide financial and technical assistance to at least 15 non-traditional high schools, over a five-year period, that fit the criteria for the programme.

Minister of Education Andrew Holness said that, in order to achieve a higher success rate, non-traditional high schools that are closest to the average grades of traditional high schools would be targeted first.

Grace Camille, projects manager for the initiative, said some of the criteria for which schools will be chosen to participate in the programme include each school's capacity and willingness to develop its students' academic performances.

President of the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools, Nadine Molloy, said she was anticipating the implementation of the programme as she was eager for the day when students attending non-traditional high schools would be looked at as equals tostudents attending traditional high schools.

Labelling must end

Molloy said the perpetual reference to students who attend non-traditional high schools as 'dunce', and the labelling of schools as 'good' or 'bad', need to stop in order to create a balance between the non-traditional and traditional high schools.

"We need to banish totally the labels we give to children attending these schools," Molloy stressed.

Kemesha Kelly, president of the National Secondary Students' Council, told The Gleaner she believes the initiative is an excellent idea, as it will help with the development of these non-traditional schools and, hopefully, over a period of time the stigma of the students of these schools as being 'dunce' will be removed.

"Every child can learn, every child must learn," Kelly said.

Ena Barclay, president of the Jamaica Teachers Association, said non-traditional high schools do not get enough support from the Ministry of Education or parents, and that she was therefore giving her support to the initiative by the building societies in the intervention of the education sector.

"Education is everybody's business," Barclay declared.