Increased Student Enrolment in Sixth-Form Pathways Programme
By: , September 5, 2023
Photo: Donald De La Haye
Acting Chief Education Officer, Ministry of Education and Youth, Dr. Kasan Troupe.The Full Story
The Ministry of Education and Youth is reporting an increase in the number of students enrolled in the Sixth-Form Pathways Programme for the 2023/24 academic year.
This was disclosed by Acting Chief Education Officer, Dr. Kasan Troupe, while speaking on ‘Ask the Minister’, aired on Nationwide News Network on Tuesday (September 5).
“Last year’s data show a massive jump from us retaining 14,000 students to 24,000-plus students in our secondary programme of learning and, of course, students are not only in our high schools; they are in our community colleges; they’re in our teachers’ colleges, and in private tertiary institutions,” she advised.
The programme allows students who complete grade 11 to pursue an additional two-year course of study with alternative opportunities, alongside the traditional sixth-form curriculum.
“We are proud to report that students have been retained and we see the natural progression happening this year. Everybody is about sixth form. There is a sense of excitement and interest and we are absolutely proud of that,” Dr. Troupe said.
The Acting Chief Education Officer disclosed that there are challenges being experienced in Region 2, which covers the parishes of St. Thomas, St. Mary and Portland.
“We don’t have a lot of tertiary institutions on that side. Those parishes continue to struggle. In ensuring that we find spaces for them, we map them to institutions in Kingston, nearest to them. We have been trying to retrofit some areas out there, partner with some private schools to build out their facilities to accommodate students,” Dr. Troupe said.
Under the programme, students will be able to leave the secondary education system with one or more of the following: an Occupational Associate Degree, which offers workplace competencies while they are learning the discipline; Certificate or Diploma (within an occupational discipline); an accredited Council of Community College of Jamaica (CCCJ) or University Council of Jamaica (UCJ) Associate Degree; additional Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and City and Guilds subjects, to include Mathematics and English; and National Vocational Qualification-Jamaica (NVQJ) and/or Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) levels two or three.