Prayers, devotion and life’s discussions helped first batch of students succeed – first Principal

The first principal of the West St George Secondary School , Alinda Hypolite is proud of the school’s first batch of students for not giving up when people counted them out.

When Hypolite assumed duties in 2004, she thought she was maybe getting students who passed the Common Entrance examinations. However, it was quite the opposite.

“Many of them couldn’t read beyond Grade one and…secondary school is Grade seven, so we had to implement lots of remedial programmes, especially English and Maths. Our students couldn’t spell, couldn’t read…” She told SEARCHLIGHT in an interview as she reminisced on her time spent as Principal at the school However, with a staff that was willing to work, Hypolite was not discouraged with the challenge of preparing these students for their Caribbean Secondary Education Council Examination(CSEC) in 2009. She reached out to other schools to find out what they were doing in their remedial programmes and implemented some of their practices at the WSGSS.

During that time, the school focused on giving students “a sense of pride” by encouraging non-academic programmes and activities where they could achieve success in other areas.

She pointed out that the first batch of students had a 59 per cent pass rate in the 2009 CSEC examinations.

“ If you had to repeat, you repeated and we work with you and see if you can go to the next level the next time…it wasn’t that if you didn’t make 50 per cent, you get put out of school. That didn’t happen…We got parents on board so parents were willing to work with us…because they wanted something good for their children as well,” Hypolite added.

“It was a good vibe going like a family,” she said. However, the public was not so welcoming towards the students as the WSGSS school uniform created quite a stir.

“We were different, and that caused a lot of people to look down on the school…because they weren’t accustomed to those kind of uniforms even though…in the Caribbean, you had uniforms of all different shapes, colours, patterns and so on; but St Vincent was accustomed to the white top and the solid colour at the bottom, so when we came in…with a plaid skirt and so, that was different,” Hypolite said, adding that the boys wore light blue shirts and blue pants, while the girls wore light blue shirts and plaid skirts.

She said the biggest misconception of WSGSS was that students figured that they had to fail Common Entrance to attend the school but after achieving 59 per cent passes in the CSEC examinations, people began to gradually accept the school. Hypolite said that many in the first batch of students who attended WSGSS are now successful in their careers.

After leaving the school in 2008, and witnessing the progress it has made over the past 20 years, Hypolite told SEARCHLIGHT that the newer staff were able to continue and build on the foundation laid by the initial staff. She credited prayer, devotions, and discussions on life as main factors that helped her students become successful members of society.