Vauxhall High School, an upgraded public institution in east Kingston, is redoubling its efforts to ensure that students perform well in the 2009 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations.

The performance of students who sat the examination last year was encouraging and Steve McLean, examination coordinator, said the school's administration had decided to intensify its efforts to improve results this year.

"We have a marathon each year, where we decide to just disregard the timetable and have three-hour sessions for each subject," said McLean.

He further explained that the approximately 201 students who will be sitting the CSEC examinations will attend classes on Saturday, and sometimes Sunday.

100 per cent passes

McLean said there was a 100 per cent pass rate for principles of accounts and principles of business last year, adding that the success rates for English language, home economics and some of the science subjects were fairly good. He said, however, that mathematics continues to be a major challenge.

McLean, who is also the head of the business department, said there are plans for a sleepover this year, where students in his department would get together and work on past papers, among other things.

"School-based assessment (SBA) is a problem each year and we have to redouble our efforts because if they don't do the SBAs, they will fail," he said.

McLean said at least one teacher ensured that her students' SBAs were completed last year, so she can now focus wholly on syllabus theory.

"I am 100 per cent confident that we will get good passes," said McLean.