Wed | Oct 15, 2025

From zero to 35 per cent

Maud McLeod High’s strategies lead to massive improvement in CSEC mathematics pass rate

Published:Wednesday | October 15, 2025 | 12:07 AMSashana Small/Staff Reporter
Acting principal Beverley Feare and Haniff Nembhard, mathematics teacher at Maud McLeod High School, with their awards at the Tactical Approach Awards 2025 for excellence, in recognition of being among the top 20 teachers from high schools with the highest
Acting principal Beverley Feare and Haniff Nembhard, mathematics teacher at Maud McLeod High School, with their awards at the Tactical Approach Awards 2025 for excellence, in recognition of being among the top 20 teachers from high schools with the highest success rate/ certification rate in mathematics for their grade-11 cohort of students for the academic year 2024-2025 at the Shortwood Teachers’ College in St Andrew yesterday.
Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon (centre), minister of education, skills, youth and information and Dr Kasan Troupe (back row, left), permanent secretary in the ministry, pose with the principals after presenting Tactical Awards to them at the Tactical Approac
Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon (centre), minister of education, skills, youth and information and Dr Kasan Troupe (back row, left), permanent secretary in the ministry, pose with the principals after presenting Tactical Awards to them at the Tactical Approach Awards 2025 for Excellence at the Shortwood Teachers’ College in St Andrew yesterday.
Dominique Dixon-Parnell, of Tarrant High School, speaks to the media after receiving her award at the Tactical Approach Awards 2025 for excellence, in recognition of being among the Top 20 teachers from high schools with the highest success rate/certificat
Dominique Dixon-Parnell, of Tarrant High School, speaks to the media after receiving her award at the Tactical Approach Awards 2025 for excellence, in recognition of being among the Top 20 teachers from high schools with the highest success rate/certification rate in mathematics for their grade-11 cohort of students for the academic year 2024-2025.
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An integration of mathematics in other subject areas, as well as concerted efforts to address the school’s high rate of exam absenteeism, has proved very fruitful for Maud McLeod High School in Darliston, Westmoreland.

The rural school has moved from a zero per cent pass rate in last year’s sitting of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) mathematics exam to 35 per cent this year.

Yesterday, Hanniff Nembhard, head of the school’s mathematics department and acting vice-principal, was one of 76 teachers awarded by the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information for their role in improving students’ grades in this core subject.

Maud McLeod was one of 56 schools targeted under a tactical approach programme introduced by the ministry last year to enhance student performance in mathematics in the CSEC examinations. The institutions chosen were those assessed as “not satisfactory” by the National Education Inspectorate.

“When you have a passion for teaching, you have to do what you have to do,” Nembhard told The Gleaner.

Acting principal Beverley Feare said the school took the tactical approach programme and “ran with it” and is pleased to now be enjoying the winnings.

“We did real math. We had integration – measurement was across the different areas …whenever the home economics teacher is doing baking, they do ratio proportions and they do all the measurements. We did it for the vocational areas as well, building technology, where they were able to measure up their different lengths,” she said.

She added that professionals were also brought in to show students how mathematics is applied in real-life scenarios and careers.

Operating on a shift system, Feare, who has been acting principal for a year, said extended school hours were also introduced at Maud McLeod, where students from both shifts came to school two hours earlier. This, she said, allowed them to have more mathematics sessions as well as increased their safety.

Lauding the school’s 90 per cent pass rate at level three in City and Guilds Mathematics, Feare also noted that efforts to improve student attendance were crucial to this achievement.

REVAMPING TRANSPORTATION PROGRAMME

“There was a whole revamping of the bus programme where we organise rural transportation for the PATH students, so the students were coming in on time,” she said.

“These efforts were extended to get more parental involvement, too, Nembhard stated.

“With the tactical approach, we were getting a lot of parental involvement, so we had to go into the communities sometimes and arrange parent-teacher association (meetings), and then some students who were absent for a prolonged period of time, we definitely made some calls, and [told] the parents the importance of the exam,” she said.

For Dominique Dixon Parnell, head of the mathematics department at Tarrant High School in Kingston, engaging students using technology and other methods was critical to the school more than doubling its CSEC mathematics passes from 11 per cent last year to 30 per cent in the recent exams.

“You have to be very interactive with the students because our students, they don’t necessarily like math, they have a fear of math … they don’t think that they have the capabilities of doing well in math, so I have to try to bridge that gap in order to show them that there is no such thing as it not being in your genes,” she said.

She noted that the Ministry of Education’s tactical approach programme provided additional extra online classes for students.

“They had a lot of online sessions that the students were able to engage with. So even though we had extra classes for them Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, as well as on Saturdays, the ministry also had online sessions throughout the entire time.”

Dixon Parnell, who has been teaching mathematics at the school for 11 years, said she felt honoured by the award but found the most gratification in the success of her students.

Pointing to Jamaica’s improvements in CSEC mathematics in the recent exams, Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon, the minister of education, stressed the importance of amplifying the successes achieved.

In the June–July exam administered by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), 44 per cent of students earned grades one to three in mathematics, compared to 39 per cent last year.

Morris Dixon stated that the ministry’s goal is to have students being literate and numerate before entering high school.

“Can you imagine what we can achieve in our high schools if we get every child literate?” That’s what we need to get to. There are some schools that are doing tremendously well, some that are struggling,” she said. “We have to lift the entire system.”

Addressing the awardees, Dr Adrian Stokes, chairman of the Education Transformation Committee, underscored the importance of recognition as a fundamental part of the transformation process.

“In anything that we are doing, rewards and recognition is a very important part of it, and that’s what today is about.

“We need to fundamentally transform how we recognise our people, how we reward our people, and we plan to build on this so that you, the principal, the teachers, the board members, everybody in education feels valued because that’s what it’s going to take,” he said.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com