CONCERNED STAKE HOLDERS OF EXCELSIOR HIGH SCHOOL
137 Mountain View Avenue
Kingston 3
Jamaica, W.I.
Hon. Maxine Henry-Wilson, MP
Minister of Education & Youth
2 National Heroes Circle
Kingston 4
Jamaica, W.I.
Madame Minister,
I make this petition on behalf of some concerned alumni, current students, parents, teachers,friends and other stakeholders of Excelsior High School.
As you are aware our alma mater celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. We think it is indeed a prime opportunity to revisit an issue that has been of much concern to us for some time.
We speak specifically about the continued absence of a 6th form at the school. This we think is inimical to the overall academic, cultural, social and moral development of the students at Excelsior and thwarts any effort at imparting peer values and discipline among the younger members of the student body.
Additionally there is a general shortage of sixth form places. Therefore students at Excelsior who excel and qualify for sixth form are forced to compete for places at other schools with 6th forms. Experience and information tells us that other schools give priority to their own and Excelsior students are left to beg or have favorable inside contacts to be considered despite their excellent performance at CXC.
Sixth form is also the place where leadership development starts to mature. This is two-fold in nature as it provides the opportunity for our students to prepare for the wider society and also to serve as role models for the lower schools .Our students who do get accepted to other sixth forms are not given leadership privileges because they are new to the school and their leadership qualities are unknown.
There are a number of areas in which we think the reintroduction of a sixth form would serve to arrest a downward slide that has been evident in recent times. To us, leadership and peer mentorship has been a casualty of this state of affairs because a vacuum has now been created where before sixth formers served as role models and the first line of discipline in reinforcing the ethos of the institution;
The Community College, while an asset is not, we think, a viable option to the 6th form because it is a separate entity and is physically removed from the high school, hence
whatever leadership the more mature students could have imparted is lost because of the absence of a physical presence or being part of the High School structure. In addition the costs for doing sixth form studies at the Community College is prohibitive.
As a result of our students having to leave Excelsior to go on to 6th form studies at other schools, places our alma mater at a distinct disadvantage in competitive academic endeavours. In the School Challenge Quiz, for example, our fourth and fifth formers, and even in one instance a second former, are routinely pitted against other schools’ teams largely comprising sixth formers.
Our recent success at Manning Cup football demonstrates the pivotal role sports can play in boosting school morale and acting as a catalyst for alumni school pride and fundraising. However, our success at boys’ football belies the fact that in most other sports the youthful Excelsior teams are routinely overmatched while competing against teams with more mature sixth formers numbered among their students bodies. At a point where the student would be approaching physical maturity, he/she is lost to Excelsior because of the absence of a sixth form.
We urgently seek the reinstatement of a sixth form for the next academic year September 2007. We the stakeholders are prepared to provide whatever support, whether financial, structural or otherwise to make this a reality. We are committed to our alma mater and we would like to see its continued rise. Thank you for your kind attention and we look forward to meeting with you to discuss these and other matters concerning the welfare our alma mater. Attached are signatures of a vast number of stakeholders who support this petition, are anxious to see the sixth form be reintroduced and are willing to provide support.
I can be contacted at the telephone # (H) 946-3345 ( C ) 382-7934
(W) 928-0310.
Regards,
Winsome Halliman
Convenor Lobby Group XLCR 6th form
Duane Coombs
Member
Gaynor Downer
Member
Granville “Junior” Virgo
Member