The EDITOR, Sir:

Upon finally opening the compact disc holding the results of the 2008-2009 Grade Four Literacy Test, I stopped to give God thanks for the hard-working staff at the Allman Town Primary School.

Many persons might have heard of this school that had a reputation of being 'one of the 72 worst-performing schools in Jamaica', hence we were placed on the New Horizons Project for Primary Schools, funded by the USAID. Through hard work of previous and present administrations, the school stands strong.

My personal victory is not exactly in the fully mastery students, they were foreseen. I rejoice, however, for those who gained near mastery! Many of those students attended school without a meal in the mornings. They (still) have no lunch or lunch money, have not been registered on the PATH programme, are among the worst groomed and display behavioural problems. In essence, they depend on the kind-heartedness of teachers to feed them physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually daily. One such student appears at my office window ceremoniously for my cup of soup. It has now become his cup of soup.

Excellence through discipline

The five students who failed had been referred for learning assessments, and only one parent responded. My staff and students have proven our motto true, "Excellence through discipline", and indeed, there is no excuse for schools not doing well. Not even ours!

Let us examine the disparities that exist in today's public Jamaican educational institutions:

Upon registration in our school, we ask for the standard documents - birth certificates, immunisation cards, passport-size photograph and, if transferring from another school, the last school report. Interestingly, there is still a high percentage of students who have completed six years and have not produced the birth certificate. Do I have the option to turn them out for that reason? Yet there are some schools which will not even consider these students if they cannot present the document.

We do not screen the students we accept; regardless of the grade, they will be placed. The first test administered to the students is the diagnostic test, after they have been placed in their classes and, for grade ones, the Ministry of Education's Grade One Individual Learning Profile. There are, however, many public schools that have a screening process and, for those students who reside in our hinterlands, Allman Town Primary becomes the sanctuary for those who failed the other schools' entrance exams.

We are faced with special cases each year, where we accept students who have never been to school prior to coming to us, or, as we have this school year, a 10-year-old who has never been to school since leaving the basic school level. Who will be held accountable for him? My grade-four teacher who now has to perform nothing short of a miracle to teach him the very basic and necessary skills for him to survive in a real world?

Special education

We do not have a special education or special needs department, but what we have is a dedicated and skilled group of teachers, who are willing to cooperate with the staff shifting annually or termly, so that the needs of students are met as much as it is in our powers to do so.

I encourage my staff to use data to instruct them, and to motivate themselves. If they are able to move a student from one grade level to another at the end of the year, they have achieved.

I, therefore, expect that all eyes will once again be upon us for the results this year. If we must measure achievement, shouldn't we have data to give us a reference point? Which is more of an accomplishment? Moving from 98 per cent to 100 per cent or moving from one of the worst-performing schools in the island to one contending with, and in the case of the GSAT results for 2008-2009, surpassing the national average?

Kudos to the many teachers, like mine, who go beyond the call of duty to not only live up to the expectations of national assessment programmes, but to prepare our students to make sense of the very disorderly, disappointing world in which they live and are expected to learn.

I am, etc.,

KANDI-LEE CROOKS-SMITH

Principal

Allman Town Primary