Even a maximum of 900 students is too large for secondary schools to manage. Principal of the Lodge School Trevor Pilgrim made this assertion at the school’s speech day this morning.
“I recently read in the newspapers with the construction of two new schools, that the maximum student roll in any secondary school will not exceed 900, which will considered to be the maximum number that the school can manage with reasonable ease. Eight hundred and fifty would be even better. But once you are over 1000, there are specific problems that emerge,” he said in his address.
Pilgrim was referring to Government’s plan to set a limit in the island’s secondary schools. It is to be one aspect of the Medium Term Development Strategy 2010-2014 aimed at the infrastructural development of the educational system and was prepared by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Empowerment, Innovation, Trade, Industry and Commerce.
The principal of the Society, St. John institution said the school was overcrowded with a current roll of 1 039 students and the plant was not able to cater this number. This overcrowding has resulted in “a palpable restlessness and a lack of focus among some students”, he added.
The situation has also led Pilgrim to defend the idea of having two deputy principals in each school: one to deal with administrative matters and one to deal with problem solving. In this way, he said, principals can get on with the work of improving the programmes at their schools.
“Principals are bogged down with student’s complaints, irate parents and what I call ‘adminis-trivia’. Principals talents can be put to better use.” Pilgrim also lamented the behaviour of some parents who make it difficult to enforce order within schools.
“One problem that I have is the rapidly growing number of parents and guardians who do not support school policy and school rules. This leads to display of defiance from their children and wards,” he said.
“They thoroughly defend their ward’s enfringement of the school rules and show open hostility to principals. They are uncooperative, angry when their children are punished... and are always ready to run to the Ministry of Education, their lawyer or the press and sometimes all three with their version of events.”
However, giving into those parents was not an option, as Pilgrim believed “the school should remain a fortress of social control or society will be plunged into chaos.” The Lodge School, which has won numerous local and regional awards, championships and competitions over the past year, also highlighted some of its talent during the proceedings, including its own miniature Michael Jackson Jed Clarke and its various musical groups. (LW)
Source: http://www.barbadostoday.bb/
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