‘Urban schools do better’
A THOROUGH examination of the data provided by a Johnson Survey Research study on Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) results reveals that urban schools are performing far better than their rural counterparts.
The study has revealed that the schools performing above average are normally located in the parish capitals and other towns.
The top 100 is dominated by schools in the Corporate Area, Portmore, urban St Catherine, and the western city, Montego Bay, in St James.
In St Catherine, for example, the top 10 schools are located in Spanish Town, Portmore, and Old Harbour.
The best-performing school in the parish is Portmore Missionary Preparatory, while the topperforming public school is Kensington Primary, also located in Portmore.
ACCESS TO RESOURCES
Michael-Anthony Dobson-Lewis, senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Liberal Studies at the University of Technology, said the cases of urban institutions outperforming rural schools is usually due to access to resources.
“With urban schools, they have access to greater resources. It is easier to get access to much-needed resources such as a libraries and Internet in the capitals and towns than in most rural communities,” Dobson-Lewis said.
He said that a major factor affecting performance in rural and urban areas is the quality of teachers they have.
“Better and more qualified teachers usually locate in the urban areas as it is easier for them to access certain amenities and further their studies,” the senior lecturer added.
The Ministry of Education has indicated that 200 public schools at the primary level are underpopulated and that even with their small class sizes, these schools are not necessarily performing better.
The data have given some credence to this argument as many of the public schools with small numbers are failing to meet the national standard.
Many schools with their GSAT cohort numbering below 10, especially in the rural areas, have found themselves below the national average.
There are also some schools that are close to each other that are populated by students from similar socio-economic backgrounds, yet they are polar opposites in the rankings.
Dobson-Lewis attributes occurrences such as these largely to how the schools are managed. He argues that those primary schools that are performing on par with their private counterparts are usually better supervised and have stronger parent-teacher associations.