The 2026 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) English language examination success of young grades 8 and 9 students Andrelissa Brown and Tegan Brown of St Thomas Technical High School continues to demonstrate how students adjudged to be ‘slow learners’ can shine as a result of strategic interventions.
St Thomas Technical is one of 56 non-traditional high schools, and 189 primary schools, benefiting from the targeted strategies of the National School Learning and Intervention Programme (NSLIP), introduced by the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information in 2022 in response to learning gaps and loss experienced by students following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pursuing the Education Ministry’s Tactical Approach – comprising the three main initiatives of extended learning and teaching support, accountability, and performance tracking and celebration – Principal Rochelle Taylor Brown decided on a bold plan.
In September 2025, a select group of Grade 7 students who had continued to improve, maintaining targeted marks and standards after internal examinations at the end of their first year, entered a special class in preparation for the likely sitting of CSEC English language and mathematics examinations in Grade 9.
The budding experiment, however, led to a decision this year to enter students for the CSEC English language examination, with 14-year-old Tegan Brown selected from Grade 9 and 13-year-old Andrelissa Brown from Grade 8, for showing particular promise.
Both students received Grade 2 passes, with Tegan also achieving Grade 2 in social studies.
‘they were ready’
A beaming Taylor Brown, trusting the data and her instincts, said she was confident about the decision.
“I felt they were ready … yes – oh yes, Andrelissa as well. Children can be targeted from Grade 7.”
The response to the programme was quite tentative at first, but Taylor Brown was undeterred.
“I had a special presentation to parents and teachers outlining the vision for the class, the roles for everyone – and the work, the standards, the discipline and attendance required of students.”
“It was a good plan,” said Aldina Wynter, the English language teacher for Ggades 8, 9 and 11 at St Thomas Technical for the past three years, whose responsibility it was to guide both students.
“It’s an example for other students – a way to inspire them.”
In preparing the students, Wynter held extra evening classes and conducted pull-out sessions during the regular timetable and lunch periods.
In meeting students where they are to generate greater interest and participation, “you have to give them a chance to tell you what they think … or they will tune you out,” she said.
She uses real-world examples and recalled that, during a class on essay writing, which also served as an exercise in critical thinking, students were asked whether Google made us stupid.
More than eyebrows were raised, she recalled, “but they all got involved”, she said.
Both students readily praised their English language teacher.
“She’s always behind us, always pushing us, showing us easier ways to get things done,” said Andrelissa, while Tegan described her as quite caring.
“She listens, takes her time and gives good advice … like a mother.”
Andrelissa and Tegan are known to be quiet and driven, with both, however, preferring the sciences.
Tegan is the president of the school’s science club and, although admitting that English is not her subject of choice, she is willing to tackle any challenge.
“I am active and I am ready,” she said.
Andrelissa is equally confident. A member of her church choir, she is set to take on football and drama.
She helped to coordinate her school’s recent literacy fair, where she played the part of Pa Ben in the late Trevor Rhone’s play and book Old Story Time, used as a text in her English Literature class.
“I believe in myself,” she said.
Fathers’ involvement
Both students speak admirably about their fathers’ involvement in their lives. Both are farmers, and Andrelissa said her father, Andre Brown, is very supportive.
“He’s always encouraging me … he’s the best dad.”
Tegan said her father, Klan Brown, is hardworking and very determined.
“I go all out for her,” Tegan’s father said. “She’s fully focused – and I was working in Cayman and decided to come back home to be with my children.”
The CSEC English language success of Andrelissa and Tegan has prompted interest in their learning journeys from primary school to high school, including whether St Thomas Technical was their school of choice.
It wasn’t, but their remarks about how they have settled in at St Thomas Technical are instructive.
Andrelissa, who attended Seaside Primary in Hector’s River, Portland, wanted to attend Titchfield but was distracted by her peers at school and was hardly doing any work.
“Placed at St Thomas Technical, I saw it as a chance to move on in a new environment – and I just started to do my work from day one,” she said.
“I was very slow,” said Tegan, who attended Golden Grove Primary School.
“I just couldn’t understand schoolwork … not picking up. Then, in Grade 6, my form teacher, Ms Raymond, spent a lot of time with me, and I will always be grateful. Yes, I cried for two days when I was not placed at Morant Bay High but there are really no regrets. I am here; I don’t want to be anywhere else – because now I have a purpose.”
Taylor Brown is planning, given their performance, for all members of the special Grade 9 class to sit the 2027 CSEC English language and mathematics examinations.
Can they all be successful?