Western Bureau:

AS THE head of a non-traditional high school in St James, Rhudal McFarlane understands the challenges of nurturing low-performing students at Cambridge High School.

"You must understand that we not only have to deal with students who enter at the GSAT level, but those who are placed here from the grade-nine level, so there are two separate programmes in place to deal with the challenges," McFarlane told The Sunday Gleaner.

He said when students are placed at Cambridge High through the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT), they are not thoroughly evaluated until the end of their first term. At the end of seventh grade, the school decides what course of action to take, based on examination results.

According to McFarlane, students who are not able to do basic mathematics and English language after the first term are enrolled in the school's remedial programme and mandated to join a reading programme.

Remedial programmes

Ninth-grade students who are transferred and are unable to read are enrolled in what the school has dubbed, the Student Empowerment Programme.

McFarlane noted that several students have been placed at his school who are unable to read after completing the GSAT.

So that the school's remedial programmes become necessary. No 11th-grade student should not be able to read and do basic computation after leaving this school," McFarlane stated.

Students who successfully navigate the remedial programmes and show marked improvement at the end of grade 11 are rewarded with the Principal's Award for Academic Improvement which the schools uses to boost morale.