The ability to gain an education is essential in everyone’s life and it provides you with knowledge, important life skills and awareness. This is necessary in preparing for the working field and providing for personal needs all of which is important to survival. In Jamaica your education starts from basic school level through to high schools and at present it is free; everyone gets a chance to learn. However, Jamaican high schools are privately or publicly owned and only the public schools offer free education. GetJamaica.Com has worked the education ministry in helping to develop this Jamaican high schools directory.
When a child starts high school they would have already completed the primary level education and did the necessary examinations. There is the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT), which replaced the Common Entrance Examinations and the Grade Nine Achievement Test (GNAT). How the children performs in these examinations will determine the level at which they would be placed in the different high schools.
There are two categories of high schools you have the traditional and non- traditional, the students who performed well is normally placed at the traditional schools. There are numerous scholarships that are available from many sectors private and public institutions. These are awarded to the excellent performers and automatically securing a place in the high schools that is well recognized.
The high school is the place where that student will start to prepare and gets the chance to identify their possible career path. There are two levels at the high schools, first there is the lower school this include forms 1 – 3 with students from age 10-14. At this stage the students are introduced to a wide variety of subjects which would include Social Studies, Mathematics, English, Integrated Science and second languages of French or Spanish. For them to move forward through the different forms their placement will be based on how they perform in the end of term examinations.
At the third form level the Integrated Science would be broken down to Chemistry, Physics and Biology. This could be considered the crucial form as this is where the students get to choose a possible career path and at some schools they will be assigned accordingly, for instance if you want to be a Doctor you will be placed in the forth form classes which offers the Sciences.
The next level at the school would now be the upper school with fourth and fifth forms and this is where the students will be aligned to their career path or at some schools they would be placed based on the how they performed in previous examinations.
At the forth form level the students will choose the amount of subjects that they will sit in the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) or General Certificate of Education (GCE) final year examinations. The students have the opportunity of choosing their curriculum with the help of their teachers and parents; this ensures that they choose the subject levels that are manageable.
The curriculum can include subjects such as Chemistry, Physics, French, Spanish, Accounts, Information Technology, Principles of Business, Technical Drawing, Religious Education and numerous others. But the English Language and the Mathematics are compulsory; some schools might have others that are compulsory.
The students are then informally classified depending on their subject choices such as business students, the sciences or the arts. There is a third level in some high schools; this is the sixth form which students can move to next or go straight into colleges or universities.
The performance of students in Jamaican high schools can also allow them to be awarded scholarships in universities or colleges overseas or locally. There are many other areas for the students to further excel in their education if they were not successful at their final year examinations. This includes numerous vocational areas such as the Heart Trust NTA, which offers numerous programs.
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