IN JAMAICA: 'It can be done' . Ensom City Primary explains strategy behind unprecedented GSAT success....Forty of the 196 students who sat the exam this year got averages of 90 per cent and above. One girl got a perfect 100 across the board.

 Sunday, July 19, 2015    

'DEDICATION' was the one word that surfaced again and again when the Jamaica Observer spoke with teachers and administrative staff at Ensom City Primary School in Spanish Town about the reason behind the school's phenomenal Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) scores this year.

Eighteen of the 40 students at Ensom City Primary who
 scored GSAT averages of 90 and above in this year’s
sitting of the high school entrance exam.

Forty of the 196 students who sat the exam this year got averages of 90 per cent and above, with 21 of those being 95 per cent and higher. One girl got a perfect 100 across the board.

That's no mean feat for a school which has struggled over the years to shake off the poor regard of society in general for all-age schools. It opened in 1976 as Ensom City All-age and has gone through the paces of the Ministry of Education's upgrading process. In 1998 it got the Primary and Junior High nomenclature, and two years later, got its current style.

Added to that challenge, the majority of the students live in volatile communities, some of which are a stone's throw from the school. But the fight is being won one battle at a time, according to principal Pauline Banton, and this year's GSAT is the latest in a growing number of accomplishments that prove it.

Banton spoke about gold, silver and bronze medals the school has won at the Miami Classic Invitational Competition, as well as in drumming. She also mentioned its participation in Junior Schools' Challenge Quiz and various clubs and societies internally.

The level of success brought about by the GSAT grades has given some amount of hope to current students and alumni, some of whom include "doctors and professionals right across the world". Two of the more well-known names on the Jamaican landscape are Scotia Foundation's Joylene Griffiths-Irving and real estate developer and wife of the Leader of the Opposition, Juliet Holness. more