Jamaica’s Literacy Crisis

The Pembroke Hall High Syndrome

What percentage of the Jamaican population is suffering from the Pembroke Hall High Syndrome?

June 24, 2025

Jamaica Gleaner ·

June 10 at 9:18 AM ·

More than 70 per cent of the roughly 220 grade-seven students at Pembroke Hall High School

are unable to read or do so only at a grade-three level, according to the school’s principal,

Reverend Claude Ellis. Alarmingly, many of these students struggle to recognise letters of the alphabet,

Ellis told The Gleaner.

https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20250610/pembroke-hall-high-faces-literacy-crisis

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June 16, 2025

Well, I am very happy that someone who matters, and is in a position to

get the attention of the people who will have to address this problem,

is drawing attention to this problem.

Thank you, Principal Ellis.

I have been trying to draw attention to the problem for a long time now,

but no one took any interest.

Here are a couple things that I posted on social media:

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“Many years ago, I suggested that some retired people could volunteer

to sit in some classrooms.

Their presence would influence the behavior of both students and teachers.

But no one thought it was worth testing even in one school.

May 16, 2025″

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“Question for Jamaican English Teachers

Are your people on social media using

the English that you taught them in school?

May 10, 2025″

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Where are the teachers who are responsible

for teaching English to these people?

05/09/25

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“The Education System

What happened to Jamaica’s Education System

since I left there? When I was a child there, some

of the people who read the Bible in the churches

were people who left school in Second Class.

And now I am reading things written by College

educated people and I, as Manny Chin would say,

“want to cly”.

What happened there? Can this trend be reversed?

March 24, 2023″

06/15/25 70% of Pembroke Hall High students

I have been offering to help Jamaica to address that problem for many years now, and they reject everything that I offer, without offering any viable proposal of their own.

“They do not speak English, they do not read English, they do not write English.

But all their textbooks are written in English.

How well can they understand what is written in a language

that they don’t speak, read, or write?

And the Intelligence test is also written in English, and they score 75.

June 4, 2025″