Marlie Mount Primary improve NEI score

The previous NEI assessment was done five years ago.

“Many schools do not get good. And only two schools I know of, that has got exceptionally high. Most schools get satisfactory. So Marlie Mount has done extremely well. And in almost all categories we have received good for them,” said a beaming Calvin Harris, the school principal.

Harris made the disclosure during the academic year’s final Parent Teachers Association (PTA) meeting last week on the school’s ground.

He noted that the 46-year-old institution continue to make considerable strides amid other existential issues, before expressing gratitude to the parents and teaching staff for contributing to the improvement.

With a very vibrant PTA the school was scored “exceptionally high” by the NEI team, Harris said.

This, the principal added, is indicative of the strong working relationship between parents and teachers.

In highlighting snippets from the report, he said: “There was one area that the school got exceptional high marks for and that is parent support and community. Exceptionally high.

“It means that you as parents have your faith in this institution because you have confidence in the management of the school.”

Of concern, however, is the school’s average performance in external exams, which remain at satisfactory level.

“We would have understood that the GSAT exams would have been in the 60s over the years despite the fact that the literacy exams are usually in the 90s,” Harris pointed out. So that would bring it down into the 60s.

“It is at the high end but we are working on that.”

Unsurprisingly the institution, with a student population of over 1,500 and still operating on shift, received a low mark for infrastructure.

But the next NEI report is likely to see marked improvement in this area, following the approval of over $110 million to construct 14 new classrooms that will enable the school to operate on a single shift which is a state policy initiative.

“We got unsatisfactory for infrastructure which the government will be addressing shortly with the construction of 14 new classrooms for both primary and infant departments.

“The school is working hard and so we must commend our hardworking staff,” he said.