THE ASSOCIATION of Principals and Vice-principals of Upgraded High Schools wants the Government to put more reading specialists in institutions, to improve the performance of students in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination.

Most upgraded high schools performed poorly in The Gleaner's Education 2020 editorial project, which ranks high schools according to their performance in CSEC mathematics and English language examinations. Some recorded no passes for either of the two subjects.

"We want more reading specialists to be assigned to schools because we are getting students who can hardly read," Michael Stewart, president of the association, told The Gleaner this week.

Auditory, visual tests requests

Stewart also recommended that students be tested for auditory and visual disorders before they enter grade seven, as some are not reading because of sight and hearing problems.

Twenty-nine per cent of some 15,000 children who participated in an eye-screening programme, conducted by the Foundation of International Self-Help, failed.

The president said many schools in the association have been implementing literacy and numeracy programmes and have seen significant improvement in students' performance. However, he noted that more resources needed to be pumped into these institutions to bring them on par with traditional high schools.

Stewart, who is also the principal of Porus High School in Manchester, said his institution has a reading programme and has secured the services of two reading specialists.

"I have seen significant improvement because, when they came into the school, many were not reading and some did not even know some of the letters of the alphabet," Stewart revealed.