Old Harbour principal looking forward to removal from shift system

After the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information’s unkept promise to remove Old Harbour High School from the shift system by 2016, Principal Lynton Weir remains hopeful that the commitment will be honoured by the new timeline of 2028.

Weir, who has headed the St Catherine-based institution for 15 years, yesterday lamented the disadvantages that he says his students endure because they are on a shift system.

This, he said, includes reduced instructional time and limited time to participate in extracurricular activities. He noted, too, that it also encourages truancy and contributes to tardiness.

“Our parents, they work out, and when they are leaving their homes, they are leaving their homes 5:30, 6:00 o’clock. When you leave at that time, you don’t know what happens with your child on the afternoon shift,” he said. “The child might decide not to go to school, the child might decide to go to bed,” he told The Gleaner.

“When you operate a shift system, you are really hampered. You’re not able to give the 100 per cent that can be given. And then when you look at it too, our students still will have to compete for spaces in university with those schools who are not on the shift system,” he added.

The shift-school arrangement was introduced in the 1970s to increase the number of school spaces and reduce class sizes.

Under a shift system, the first group of students attends school from early morning until mid-day, while the second group usually attends from mid-day to late afternoon. Each group uses the same buildings, equipment, and other facilities.

Weir stated that his school has a population of approximately 2,160 students, with the majority – about 1,500 – on the morning shift.

He noted that discussions were had with Ruel Reid, a former education minister, to decide on whether a new school would be built at Colbeck in the parish or an extension of the current campus, which sits on 19 acres of land.

SYSTEM LEADS TO BURNOUT

However, it is not just the students who are disadvantaged by a shift school, Weir argues. He said the system, which sometimes makes him feel like he is operating two schools, can also lead to principal burnout.

“When I come in for work, I come in minutes to 7:00. I am coming in 6:30 a.m., 15 minutes to seven. What time school finishes? 5:20 p.m. And by the time I do my log and records, and what have you, I am leaving here minutes to 7:00 again. So from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., that’s 12 hours,” he said.

Although he gets an allowance for this, he said he would “rather to give up that to be in a regular school and more time for myself”.

In August, Education Minister Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon told delegates at the Jamaica Teachers’ Association’s annual conference that the shift system in all public schools would be fully eliminated by the start of the 2028-2029 academic year.

“We have a programme in the ministry where we’ve identified all the schools that are still on shift, and that is our deadline to get them off,” Morris Dixon said.

She noted that 27 schools continue to operate on the shift programme in Jamaica, but over the next two financial years, six of these schools are expected to be removed from the system as part of ongoing investments in school infrastructure.

“Obviously, some schools need construction. Also, we may need to do additional classrooms. There is a programme that is there [to address all of this], and so the timeline is the 2028-2029 academic year to have all schools moved off of the shift,” the minister said.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com