| By Sharmain GraingerClose observation by teachers, coupled with a strategic move to place them where they are best suited, has played a major role in taking Anna Regina Multilateral School to where it currently is – at the pinnacle and continuing to achieve amazing results at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations.The institution’s understandably proud headmaster, Lalljeet Ruplall, said the school has been consistently doing well, which he attributes not only to the fact that there is an unrivalled level of camaraderie among teachers,NFL Jerseys China, but that efforts are continually made to ensure that “teachers teach.” This is a task that he undertakes with his Deputy, Boadnarine Harinarine.Ruplall explained that what has proven to be most effective in ensuring quality teaching is offered at the school is a move towards ‘clinical diagnoses’ of teachers, a practice that hasAnna Regina Multilateral’s Headmaster Lalljeet Ruplall is surrounded in this collage by 25 members of the teaching staff.been ongoing for quite a few years. This entails Heads of Departments sitting-in during lessons and observing their teachers’ tutoring styles while at the same time identifying their strengths and weaknesses.“This has been working for us, because in doing this we are able to place our teachers where they are most competent to operate.”Over the years the school has been producing outstanding students, which is already evident this year, although an analysis of the school’s performance has not yet been completed. However, over the past decade the school has consistently averaged a 90 per cent pass rate.The country’s top two CSEC performers – Zimeena Rasheed and Yogeeta Persaud – attend the school. So impressive were the girls’ performances that the Ministry, in a novel move,Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping, ventured to Region Two to unveil the results. The two 16-year-olds each secured 18 great one passes, with Rasheed securing grade twos in two additional subjects.This is easily the most subjects a single candidate has undertaken over the years and I am sure CXC is again taking careful note of Guyana.Last year, too, it was Anna Regina reigning supreme, in the person of Sarah Hakh, who topped the country with 16 grade one passes. She also went on to be named the most outstanding performer by CXC, effectively ending the envied streak of Queen’s College, and proving that with a similar focus other schools can excel.But although it was not always Anna Regina making the headlines in the past, Ruplall assures that the school has for many years been churning out exceptional performers.He recounted that in 2001, 2007 and 2008, the school had some of the country’s top achievers – David Gooray (2001),Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys China, Safraz Sharief (2007) and Rahul Lall (2008) – all of whom were presented with prizes for securing the best CSEC results for junior secondary schools.Since the Anna Regina Multilateral School is not a sixth form institution it is not categorised as a senior secondary. But Ruplall emphasises that this has not stopped the school from reaching ‘higher heights’,Jerseys NFL Cheap, even as he disclosed that students hailing from the school are known to excel even at the tertiary level.With a batch of 47 competent teachers, Ruplall said that earnest efforts are made to cater to the specific learning needs of the 1000-odd student population.“If children come in with outstanding ability, we work with them as we do with those who need the additional help.” He disclosed that remedial classes in Mathematics and English are conducted at least once per week.Added to this, he said that students are constantly encouraged to practice doing past exam papers in preparation for CSEC. Such strategies,cheap jerseys from china, among others, according to him, are stressed as imperatives when the school meets with its Board at least once per term.But what has proven to be most effective is the forging of partnerships between parents and the school. Ruplall explained that it has been confirmed time and again that “children whose parents show an interest in their schoolwork are the ones who perform the best.”Defying the oddsDedication on the part of the teaching staff has also worked to address shortcomings in subject areas that have over the years yielded troubling results. English Language, Mathematics and Science (all of which the Ministry of Education has been consistently seeking to improve), are some of the key areas that the teachers of the Anna Regina Multilateral School have been paying keen attention to. However, the other subject areas are certainly not forsaken, according to Ruplall, who insisted that “achieving outstanding results requires putting in the extra work and getting the support from the relevant stakeholders.”Speaking to the state of English Language at the school,Wholesale Jerseys China, Deoranie Ramdeen, who has been teaching the subject for close to a decade at the school, disclosed that a special effort is made to ensure that students are not left in the ‘shadows’. This, however,Jerseys Wholesale, can be an especially tedious task when students enter the secondary level school with a less than satisfactory background in the area.She said that all teachers in the English Department are required “to put in the extra work where necessary” and opined that the ideal state of affairs is where all children leave the primary level with the ability to read and comprehend well.“If they can’t read how can they analyse? They can’t…so if this is lacking we have to get them there,” Ramdeen asserted.Getting students to an acceptable level in English is not achieved with ‘brute force’ but in a discipline and focused way, which Ramdeen said could see students viewing their teachers as role models whose style they can emulate as they develop.And the mode of operation is no different in the delivery of Mathematics lessons, although, according to Ravinauth Boodram who has been teaching the subject since 1994, “some students come to school with a dislike for the subject.” He said that from the ‘get-go’ intervening measures must be engaged to address this challenge. And so from as early as Form One students are administered a diagnostic test which enlightens those within the Mathematics Department of the level of work that is required.“We have to get some of them to understand concepts, the syllabus, and to develop an appreciation for what they might have missed at the primary level.” This, according to him, constitutes additional work that he is only too eager to do in order for the school to yield the desired results.However, he noted that the task becomes relatively easy once students recognise their shortcomings and are willing to accept needful and available assistance.“This sees us going beyond what even the Ministry requires us to do, as we are just satisfied once we see students grasping the ideas we teach.”And since Science is “all around us,” says Christine Beharry, who like the other Science teachers of the school, has been encouraging students to become more involved in that stream. The ardent advocacy comes even as the Ministry of Education tirelessly seeks to highlight Science as a crucial subject area.But although Science, according to her, can be applied in many areas of life, she underscored that “it takes an effective teacher to put over lessons to students in a way that they can truly appreciate the subject.”“You have to make it simple,” she said, adding that teaching Science requires a great deal of practical work which can translate into everyday living. Beharry also intimated that her teaching styles usually incorporate humour which allows her students to not only better understand what is taught, but propel them to a trajectory of achieving outstanding grades which are consistently realised at the school. |
