THE issues and hardships for students as pointed out by the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) in relation to the Region’s students’ performance at the sitting of the Caribbean Secondary Examination Council (CSEC) can and will only be addressed if  students pay more attention to literature. This is according to Henry Chase, the Director of Studies of the Chase’s Academic Foundation located in Parade Street Kingston. Mr. Chase added that in addition to address that aspect of the development of the examination, there is a need that must be looked at seriously and that is the involvement of parents in their children’s school life as against treating the school and education system as a “day care centre” where children are just dropped off and picked up in the afternoon.
The director was at the time speaking during an invited comment by the Guyana Chronicle. Mr. Chase said that there is a problem that continues to persist where parents just ensure that a child in school but finding the time check on that child’s work in the classroom seems to remain a hard task for some parents for obvious various reasons, some of which may be genuine.
This, however he warned, can and will see that children leaving the school system just the way they entered, pointing out that there can and will be no results from a child at any examinations where there is not parental or guardian input since teachers cannot and will never be able to do it alone.
Chase said that one of the other problems of the society that needs to be looked at if Guyana and the rest of the Region are to see massive increase in the examinations is the rapid rate at which students are getting involved in adult relationships.
The private educator said that too many children are not serious about their examinations since the relationships that they find themselves in ends up taking up their study time and in some cases their class time as some of them tend to stay away from the classrooms. He lamented that for some of the students it is only as the examination time nears that they start attempting to focus on their work which always turns out unfortunate for them.
Mr. Chase while speaking on the issues at his school said that the Chase’s Academic Foundation has performed better this year at both the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) and the Caribbean Secondary Examination Council (CXC).
He said that the school has seen a tremendous increase in several subject areas including mathematics but experienced a slight decline in language, human and social biology and chemistry. He said that the Chase’s Academic Foundation was privileged to be placed among the top performers of the CAPE examination but unfortunately those credits went to the Adult Education.
Mr. Chase said that his students who signed up and wrote CAPE did so through the Adult Education which was used as a centre and as such that school got the credit for the success of the students of the Chase’s Academic Foundation.
This was the first year that the school was able to place among the top performers at CAPE. One of the students who wrote the examination achieved three Grade Ones while others secured other grades. The Director of Studies said that his school is totally proud of the students for the achievement.
The Chase’s Academic Foundation sent up one hundred and sixty eight students for the sitting of the Caribbean Secondary Examination Council (CSEC) while thirty students were sent to write the Caribbean Advance Proficiency Examination (CAPE). The overall pass rate of the school is said to be 78 to 80 percent at the two examinations combined. In addressing mathematics and English literature and language individually the pass rate is expected to be 62 and 51 percent respectively.
Asked about addressing the issues of the failures at the examinations, that snared the Region’s performance at the examination this year, Mr. Chase said at his school there are already strategies in place to address the issue and there needs to be such an approach in all schools, both government and private. He said that this should be so especially since the performance of the private schools at the examinations does add to the overall performance of the country as tabulated and charted by the examinations council.
The Chase’s Academic Foundation is at the moment offering several subjects at the CAPE level including Sociology units one and two, Caribbean Studies, Management of Business units one and two, Economics unit one, Communication Studies, History unit one and Pure Mathematics units one and two and Environmental Studies. The school also offers Chemistry and Biography and Law along with Pure Mathematics at two other levels.
There are some private schools which allow students from as early as second form to sit the fifth form examination and Chase’s Academic Foundation is no different. At the recent examination the school sent up four children to write the CXC CSEC examinations and saw three of them coming out successful with grades two but who have opted to rewrite the subjects saying that they used the experience to write the examination as an experience and to get a “feel’ of what the examinations is actually like.
Mr. Chase was asked about the teacher student ratio to which he replied that the school at the lower level has student teacher ratio of 25 students to one teacher while at the upper level the ratio is 35 students to one teacher.
The Guyana Chronicle asked the Director of Studies of the strategies being used by his school to address the many issues that students will come to a school with including personal especially since the students within the school system comes from several backgrounds.
The school has a fulltime counselor who is on staff, who engages the students wherever there are issues that need to be resolved especially those of a personal nature. The school also has sessions where moral education and interactions are conducted, the Chronicle was informed and later was able to confirm after checking with a few past and present students of the school.
Mr. Chase said that what he has realized at his school is that when students are unable to make it into the New Guyana School, Mae’s Under Twelve or the Marian Academy they then show up for enrollment at the Chase’s Academic Foundation. He added that while some are enrolled and enjoy the liberty of completing their school life there are those who are asked to leave because of their inability to cope with the rules and regulations of the school.
The Guyana Chronicle was told that there are cases where students were denied the privilege of signing up for various examinations at their respective schools for various reasons but when they enroll at Chase’s and are allowed to sign up for the examinations come out as high flyers. The director made reference to a group of students from some schools who were not allowed to sign up for the CSEC but when they went to the Chase’s Academic Foundation they were allowed to sign up for the examination and every single one of them were successful at the examinations with grades ones, twos and threes.
The school while it has many privileges that are given to students, there are strict guidelines and rules that must be followed by students and according to Mr. Chase, it is one of the reasons that parents and guardians choose to send their children to the school. He said that is reflected during discussions with parents on reasons they choose the school above others.
He said that while placing students into schools, parents need to ensure that the environment is conducive for learning otherwise it would be a lost cause for the students. Chase said that the learning ability and results of children in the classroom has a lot to do with the environment that they are placed in.
He however warned that it takes moral value and standards to keep children in-line especially since there is much but yet so little that the school system can do. He pointed to the hours that the students are not in the class rooms and that specific period that they are on the road where they are exposed to so many things around them both negative and positive.
For the new School Term the Chase’s Academic Foundation will be working to establish a drama class and also get involved in activities that will promote debates and impromptu speeches.
Among the top performers at the Chase’s Academic Foundation are Dominique Watson with nine subjects,  Quintina Glasgow with ten subjects, Adrian Canzius with seven subjects, Vernon Cameron with five subjects Jason Solomon with eight subjects, Renaldo Semple with eight subjects and Carol Braithwaite who secured ten subjects.
The grades of the students included distinctions, grade ones, twos and threes.
Henry Chase’s views comes weeks after the official results of the Caribbean Secondary Examination Council and which the CXC body in Barbados described as one of the poorest output of the Region in recent times. The body pointed to a decline in the pass rate for Mathematics and English.
However Education Minister, Priya Manickchand had indicated that Guyana has seen improvements in its overall grades at the examination. Her comments were echoed by the CXC officials during their analyst of the examinations during a nationwide broadcast from the International Conference Centre last week Thursday.
The Guyanese Minister of Education also acknowledged the performance and input of the private schools of the country but stated that some will be looked at closely since their performance also affects the overall grades of the country be it positive or negative.