MINISTER of Education, Mr. Shaik Baksh, has underlined the importance of the Basis Competency Certificate Programme (BCCP) which will be part of the programme of most of the Community High Schools (CHS) to be converted into general secondary schools this year.

He was replying to questions posed last Monday by Member of Parliament of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), Ms. Amna Ally, to explain the government’s rationale for closing all community high schools in July 2009.

&CHS were established through a pilot of two CHS in 1973 and by 1977 there were 29 community high schools,” he recalled.

He reminded the House that the broad objectives of the CHS programme were geared towards providing academic and vocational training, noting, “By the late 1990s many CHS were converted into general secondary schools and were offering courses leading to the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC).”

Baksh disclosed that presently, there are 19 CHS which are offering general secondary programmes and others vocational courses in addition to academic courses.

&The Ministry of Education has introduced the Basis Competency Certificate Programme (BCCP) in some CHS and in some general secondary schools. In accordance with the Education Strategic Plan, there will 70 general secondary schools offering the BCCP programme by 2030,” he noted.

To this end, he noted, “A decision has been taken to convert all CHS into general secondary schools from school year 2009 and many of these schools will be doing the BCCP as one of the original objectives of setting up the community high schools,” he told the National Assembly.

He explained, “To introduce a six-year secondary programme for all students obtaining less than 40 per cent at the Grade Six Assessments, the first year of the six-year programme will focus on English including reading and comprehension skills; Mathematics and vocational subjects.”

He also noted, “We intend to strengthen as we are doing now, the primary school system through remediation efforts and through the fast-track initiative which is currently in place so that within a short period of years, perhaps three to four years, this will no longer be necessary.”

&It is very clear that we have decided to offer both academic courses as well as vocational courses into all schools, not only CHS,” minister Baksh reiterated.

&The general secondary schools will also have such a programme because we realised that it is important to prepare the students for the world of work…,” he stated.

&We have to equip the schools, retool them and that is one of the failings of the CHS in the past, because they were not fully equipped. Only some of them were equipped and therefore they had to revert to a general secondary school programme,” he observed.

He said several of the programmes for remediation include the new literacy methodology in all schools across the country; the fast track initiative, especially during the July/August vacation period.