At Kingston College, we remain true to that vision. We encourage all our students to participate in co-curricular activities (including, but not restricted to sports), as part of the educational and character formation process. However, none of the co-curricular activities are elevated above academic achievement, which remains paramount.

We also strongly believe that the co-curricular activities must be conducted in a manner which is consistent with the positive development and character building of our students. Consequently, it was deemed necessary to make some changes to the football programme at Kingston College because, after careful assessment, it was determined that the programme was moving in a direction which was not supportive of the overall ethos of the school.

The timing of these changes was precipitated by events occurring after, and not as a direct result of the defeat on the playing field which your editorial seemed to suggest. We do not believe that it is appropriate to elaborate on those events in this forum.

The actions taken by the headmaster are fully supported by the board of management, which remains confident that Mr Dave Myrie is discharging his duties in a manner consistent with the vision and policies of the school.

Your editorial also insinuated that some of our grade 11 students are prevented from sitting mathematics at CXC. This is incorrect. The fact is that the entire grade 11 cohort at Kingston College is required to sit both mathematics and English language in the CXC examinations each year.

While we acknowledge that there was a 12 per cent failure rate in mathematics, we should direct your attention to the fact that in the previous year, there was a 30 per cent failure rate. That 18-percentage-point increase in passes was in no small measure caused by changes initiated by Mr Myrie, and I would suggest is also an indication that our policies are working for the benefit of our students.

MICHAEL VACCIANNA
Chairman, Board, KC

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