In a bid to make up for months of lost learning, Grantley Adams Memorial Secondary School has launched an intensive recovery programme as students return to face-to-face classes.
Following an extended closure due to environmental issues – and air quality and mould remediation that cost almost half a million dollars – the school’s leadership is prioritising exam preparation for senior students.
Principal, Major Andrew Skeete acknowledged that there has been learning loss to some degree as students had been restricted to online classes since September 19 due to environmental issues affecting the Blackman’s, St Joseph school.
Speaking to reporters on the first day of in-person classes, Major Skeete said the teaching staff had committed to spending extra time with senior students to ensure they were fully prepared for their Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) exams.
“The main area that we would have been discussing quite recently was how do we get our children back on track,” he said. “The heads of departments went away yesterday with the mandate of coming up with [a plan on the way forward], looking at their own timetables, looking at the number of students who have been entered [for the exams] and then we are going to work with the current timetable that we have to ensure the students catch up, especially in the areas of the SBAs (School Based Assessments).”
Major Skeete said his team was more than capable of ensuring the students were well-equipped for the upcoming exams. He added that resolving the current learning loss challenge was not beyond the teachers.
He said: “I think we have had some experience with this before when we came out of COVID-19. Because of how our school is set up, where every child can do six years here, in junior school we will catch up. We will catch up, we will spread the syllabus over the period that they have and even the lower fifths and fourth formers will catch up because they have three years over which to complete the CSEC (Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate) syllabus. The main effort is with the upper school children, the upper fifth and getting them back.”
Deputy Chief Education Officer Julia Beckles said she was confident in the learning loss recovery programme the school will implement, adding that she wanted the student council to be more involved in the planning and execution of that programme.
“We did discuss that the children now have to be brought into the mix,” she said. “There is a student council here at the school, we want to hear from them, what they think they need, and the principal then will be able to share with us what that plan is . . . . The ministry stands ready to assist Grantley Adams Memorial School . . . . We know that they did lose considerable time and we know that learning recovery has to be top of mind. But we want that to be homegrown as much as possible, supported by the ministry, and our children must be able to speak about it as well. It affects them; nothing for them without them.”
The school was closed for the past several months due to issues relating to a noxious odour and mould. Chairman of the Board of Management, George Griffith, said an extensive cleaning programme was undertaken by three contractors to ensure the school was fit for purpose. Although he said the work was costly, totalling approximately $467 000 he said it was minuscule compared to the value of education the students were entitled to.
“The work was so comprehensive and intense that it was felt that one contractor could not do it [alone]. Therefore, we had three contractors under the recommendation of the remediation professionals,” he explained, adding that the noxious odour was mainly coming from near the assembly hall.
Griffith pointed out that an air quality test was done at the end of the 2022/2023 academic year before the summer break and that helped with the remediation process that was executed last term. Samples were sent abroad and returned in time for the remedial works.
The results from that test showed that the neighbouring gully was significantly contributing to the environmental issues at the school, he said.
“The last term (September) started and people complained of an odour emanating from the environs of the assembly hall and it was felt that we should close the school while we examined that. While we were doing that, the results of the previous study came back which showed that where we are located is west of a gully. That gully is a source of fungus and mould. The air quality test showed that it had encompassed all of the buildings in that area; the levels were very high and it was felt that something had to be done. Then with the odour people complained about, we felt we needed to bring in the professionals,” Griffith said, adding that subsequent before and after air quality tests were done.
The school board chairman said the recommendations from the tests indicate that appropriate cleaning had to be done regularly with appropriate chemicals.
After examination, the noxious odour was being emitted from fresh paint on a surface that was not properly cleaned of mould.
“We are satisfied that we did all that was humanely possible, all that could have been done. We apologise for the whole term that was lost but we felt it was better to do that comprehensive level of remediation than to rush and bring children and staff back into the school and find out after a couple of months you had issues again,” Griffith added, stressing the protocols for cleaning and maintenance the school would follow going forward.
President of the Barbados Union of Teachers Rudy Lovell said the union was pleased with the work done and the staff was looking forward to the term.
On the return of face-to-face classes, Major Skeete said the students were excited to be back. He said they had been pressing him for a return date when they saw him during the holiday break.
sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb
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