Roger Clarke High School
ON NOVEMBER 3, 2017, our quest took us to the south west sections of Jamaica, roaming one of Jamaica’s largest parishes, St Elizabeth, also known as ‘St Bess’ or even ‘Senty’. Our mission was to identify what makes Roger Clarke High School, named in honour of the late minister of agriculture, different from the other high schools across Jamaica.
Established from the vision of councillor of the Balaclava Parish Council division, Claude Watson, to accommodate 400 students, the school was officially opened on October 1, 1976, as Balaclava Secondary School. The co-educational institution boasted 191 students, ranging from grades seven to nine, as well as a staff of nine teachers, all under the care of its principal, Dundee Hewitt. In 1977, grades 10 and 11 were introduced, and the increase in the student population led to the development of a shift system in 1978. In 2000, Balaclava Secondary School was given the status of a high school, then on May 14, 2015, former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller made the declaration for the renaming of the school in honour of Roger Clarke.
As with all of our school visits, Youthlink got the chance to meet with some of the 54 members of staff and 714 students to find out what makes their school unique. One of our most memorable moments
involved introducing our taste buds to award-winning food items from the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission’s (JCDC) food competition in which Roger Clarke High School won first, second and third place! Their array of products featured jams, jellies and pepper sauces, and the jackfruit jam stood out the most, according to Authereen Demetrius, a regional sales coordinator for The Gleaner Company.
DIFFICULTIES BEING FACED
We also got to exchange a few words with the acting principal, Mrs Forbes, who identified some of the difficulties being faced by the school. One major issue involves infrastructural challenges, which have opened the window for indiscipline among the students. For example, the school once tried conducting classes in the library, only to have it wrecked by the students, creating unwanted expenses. It has had to resort to using the auditorium for lessons.
Despite the challenges, there is much to boast about. In addition to their outstanding performance in the JCDC food competition, they have also implemented the APS programme (Alternative Pathway to Secondary Education), which is designed to pinpoint the challenges of each year group and identify ways to correct them. This is done by placing the students in groups based on their Grade-Six Achievement Test results and academic levels.