Education Minister Lauds Howard Cooke Primary

Minister of Education, Hon. Rev. Ronald Thwaites, has commended students of Howard Cooke Primary School in Montego Bay for achieving academic excellence in the recent Grade Four Literacy Test.

“I want to congratulate you all for doing very well in the Grade Four examinations last year, as when the national average for mastery in literacy was about 70 per cent, Howard Cooke got 88 per cent. When the national average for Mathematics for numeracy was about 50 per cent mastery, Howard Cooke got 77 per cent,” Rev. Thwaites noted.

He was addressing students and teachers as well as members of the school community during a visit to the school’s Jamaica Day celebrations on Friday February 17. 

Several booths depicting Jamaica’s rich cultural heritage in music, food, attire, and the arts, were set up with the national colours used as the general theme. Activities at the school were concurrent with activities taking place at all schools across the island for Jamaica Day, under the theme, ‘Celebrating Jamaica: Goals for Gold’.

The Education Minister noted that he was proud of all students who excelled, as well as their teachers and parents, and encouraged those preparing for future examinations to work at achieving similar academic excellence, in honour of former Governor General, Sir Howard Cooke, who the school was named after.

“I am setting you all a challenge now… that you ensure that Howard Cooke Primary School is one of the first schools in Jamaica to get where all schools should be, which is 100 per cent performance in literacy and numeracy at the end of Grade Four,” he urged the students.

By Glenis Rose, JIS Reporter