CLARENDON, JAMAICA : Vere Technical High School — producing more than top-rated athletes such as Merlene Ottey, Ethlyn Tate, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Beverly McDonald and Deon Hemmings-McCatty being a few.

Sunday, March 06, 2016  

Vere Technical High School in Hayes, Clarendon, is known for churning out top-rated athletes and has produced the most Olympians in the history of Jamaica’s track and field — Merlene Ottey, Ethlyn Tate, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Beverly McDonald and Deon Hemmings-McCatty being a few.

What most people don’t know about Vere however, is that it has also been copping awards for innovation in agriculture, home economics, business, engineering, and information technology with a number of student-led projects which assimilate integrative learning techniques.

According to Clovis Duncan, head of the Agricultural Science Department, the students are the ones who initiate the ideas for most of the projects and the school facilitates their concepts. “The students are enthused because they are involved in the day-to-day activities of the department,” Duncan said. There are four classes with over 35 students in each. Each class is required to operate the farm for a day. This is good for exam purposes and for students submitting their school-based assessments, Duncan noted.

“The students do very well in internal and external examinations. We have up to 100 per cent pass rates in CSEC (Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate) examination and CAPE (Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination). This year we have over 55 students that should register for the next sitting,” Duncan disclosed. more