National Education Inspectorate

National Education Inspectorate
National Education Inspectorate
June 1, 2010

Basic information about the School

Jacks Hill Primary and Infant School is located in the parish of St. Andrew. It is the only school located in the semi-rural community of Jacks Hill and provides education for students from the infant department to Grade 6.The school as established in 1955 and was known as the Jacks Hill All Age and Infant School. The name was officially changed to the Jacks Hill Primary and Infant School in 2007. This is a small school built to accommodate 150 students; but currently has a student population of 57. The teaching staff of four, are involved in multi-grade teaching. The teacher-student ratio is 14:1.


Student from the surrounding areas of Jacks Hill attend the school; and are mostly from lower income families. Many of the parents are only functionally literate and most are not involved in the life of the school. The school’s mission is to “create an effective teaching and learning environment to nurture the individual’s desire to aim high, academically, culturally, spiritually and socially.”


Overall effectiveness of the school

Jacks Hill Primary and Infant School is judged an unsatisfactory school

Leadership and management are unsatisfactory. The Principal knows her school and the direction in which she wants to take it. However, there are gaps in how widely the vision is shared. Self-evaluation and improvement planning is not sufficiently driven by student performance data. There are no clear mechanisms in place to effectively monitor the work of the school and to guarantee accountability. While the Chairperson of the Board and the Principal enjoy a good relationship and the Chairperson offers advice, and ensures accountability in spending, the Board as a whole is inactive.

The school’s relationship with parents and the local community is satisfactory. The school has established meaningful links with the wider community including the Community Council, Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), and the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA).

The quality of teaching to support learning is unsatisfactory. In most lessons the teaching does not sufficiently indicate that teachers understand how best to teach their subjects. Therefore, many lessons are teacher-centred and provide students with limited independent learning opportunities. Teacher- student interaction varies across grades.

While the school has seen an improvement and was on par with the national average in the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) for Language Arts in 2009, the performance in the Grade 4 Literacy Test continues to decline. Performance averages in mathematics are below the regional and national averages. Students make satisfactory progress in English but progress is unsatisfactory in mathematics.

Most students behave well during lessons especially those in the infant department. However, their behaviour is unsatisfactory when they are unsupervised. Students show satisfactory levels of civic, economic, environmental and spiritual awareness. Most students know about the national heroes of Jamaica and their struggles to better the country. The school has a sufficient number of qualified teachers. However, because of other responsibilities teachers are not as effectively deployed during lunch to monitor students’ safety and to maintain standards in behaviour. The unsatisfactory quality and quantity of material resources does little to advance teaching and learning.

Some classrooms are divided by chalkboards and some students struggle to concentrate during lessons as a result of distracting sounds from other classes. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and other resources are insufficiently utilized. The curriculum and enhancement programmes in the school satisfactorily contribute to the students’ overall growth and development. Some provision for special educational needs is
made through the referral of slow learners to the Mico CARE assessment programme. Provisions for the safety, security and health of the students and staff are unsatisfactory. The lack of perimeter fencing and security on the compound cause the staff to feel unsafe. Satisfactory arrangements such as Programme of Advancement Through Health (PATH) and other welfare programmes effectively support the well-being of students.

Inspectors identified the following key strengths in the work of the school:

  • The school’s improved performance in Language Arts in the 2009 Grade Six
    Achievement Test (GSAT)
  • The involvement of the community in programmes that help to advance the overall
    well-being of its students.
  • Students’ understanding and awareness of civic, economic, environmental and
    spiritual issues.
DOWNLOAD
PDF
0
Elaine Foster Allen
National Education Inspectorate
November 1, 2010

The First Chief Inspector's Report on Education in Jamaica

In 2010, the National Education Inspectorate (NEI) completed its first round of inspections on 30 public schools at the primary and secondary level. By highlighting the strengths and weakness of the approaches and practices of these schools, valuable feedback and lessons are encapsulated in this comprehensive report.

The report focused on 8 key indicators of school effectiveness:

  1. Leadership and management
  2. Teaching and learning
  3. Students' performance in regional and national examinations
  4. Students' progress in relation to their starting point
  5. Personal and social development
  6. Human and material resources
  7. Safety, security and well-being

The Evidence

The NEI observed over 1100 lessons across thirty schools (23 at the primary level and 7 secondary), 60 percent were Mathematics and English Language classes and the remaining were lessons from across the other areas of the curriculum. The Inspectors also conducted 321 interviews with staff: principals, vice principals, guidance counselors and senior teachers as well as 123 on-site interviews with students during the course of these inspections.

In addition, 6275 students responded to the Inspectorates student satisfaction survey, two thousand seven-hundred and eighty-four (2,784) parents gave their perception of their children's school and 499 teachers expressed their views about the teaching and learning culture and leadership in their institution.

Key Findings

It is at the Primary level that leadership is weakest. Of the twenty-three schools inspected, thirteen were rated as unsatisfactory on all components and eight were considered as satisfactory. Only in one Primary school was the leadership and management assessed as good. The report noted that leadership was weakest in those schools where the principal failed to demonstrate focused strategic and instructional leadership and did not hold staff accountable. In one such school the inspectors noted that although the principal had a good relationship with staff, she failed to hold them accountable for improving student performance. The team noted that in these instances:

The leadership lacks the rigor and drive needed to improve teaching and students' achievements and progress. The Principal's and teachers' low expectations of the current and potential performance of individual students and groups of students contribute to the Principal giving limited direction and guidance to teachers with the goal of improving standards. Insufficient energy is placed on instructional leadership which holds teachers accountable for the impact of their teaching on students' learning.

According to the findings, self evaluation, which is critical to improvement planning has not been "fully embraced by the school management culture" and was evidently deficient at both primary and secondary levels. The report noted that "insufficient use of data allows many members of staff to remain unaware of the extent of poor performance" (p. 26). The implementation of effective tracking systems was identified as a problem that plagued many of the schools. Specifically, action goals tended to be too wide, next steps needed to be identified and limited monitoring of the progress toward goals. Conversely, those who were successful in this regard had clear, measureable goals and strong emphasis on teaching and learning.

The report found that at the primary level where teachers function as generalists, their knowledge of subject areas was weakest whereas the reverse was evident in secondary level teachers who function as subject specialists. However, in terms of students' progress in relation to their starting point, the primary level was rated as satisfactory, while performance on this indicator at the secondary level varied depending on school type.

In approximately half of the schools inspected, the curriculum and enhancement programmes supported learning effectively and scored satisfactorily or higher on the safety, security and well-being indicator.

DOWNLOAD
PDF
0
Subscribe to RSS - National Education Inspectorate