Security to be Improved at Cumberland High

The Ministry of Education has committed to putting in place several medium- to long-term security management strategies at Cumberland High School in Portmore, to mitigate the possibility of any further breaches.

Portfolio Minister, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, in an interview with media personnel following a meeting at the school on November 14, said the institution will be provided with funding to acquire additional private security personnel.

He said the Ministry will also be supporting the school in procuring and constructing perimeter fencing, which will make students safer as well as reduce the potential for truancy.

The Minister noted that the school has also been granted permission to hire an additional dean of discipline.

Students at the school were recently attacked by outsiders who gained access to the compound.

Senator Reid, meanwhile, said the school’s leadership has been tasked with putting in place a school-improvement plan and will be working along with stakeholders to customise the curriculum to meet the needs of the cohort at Cumberland High.

“We want Cumberland to be a centre of excellence where every student that comes here will excel, but we need to customise our instruction programme to meet the students where they are and take them to the level we want them to go,” he said.

The Minister, accompanied by Deputy Chief Education Officer of School Operations, Dorrett Campbell; Assistant Chief Education Officer of Guidance and Counselling, Fern McFarlane; and

Director for Region Six, Maxine Headlam, met with the Principal of the school, Michael Brydson; Board Chairman, Rupert Pryce; Education Officer, Barrington Richards; Member of Parliament for St. Catherine South Eastern, Colin Fagan, and other stakeholders.

The school’s Dean of Discipline, René Level, and Director for Safety and Security in Schools at the Ministry, Sergeant Coleridge Minto, were also in attendance.