Raising the banner of excellence
Oracabessa High School is located in the hills of Coloraine in the coastal town of Oracabessa, St Mary. It is a co-educational, upgraded, high school which was built in 1973 to accommodate 500 students. Currently the school has a student population of one thousand five hundred and four (1504) and operates on two shifts with a complement of sixty six (66) teachers.
Although the shift system affects the number of subjects offered, the school registers satisfactory results in the CSEC examinations, particularly in the May/June 2014 sitting. Passes in the core subjects are on par with the national average, while technical subjects show very promising results.
In 2014 the performance in Mathematics improved significantly in terms of number, percentage and quality passes. In 2014, 80 students were successful representing 58% of the cohort that sat. This represented an improvement over 2013 where only 39 students or 36% of the students were successful. English A showed a 10 percentage point increase in the pass rate (34%) in 2014 compared to 24% in 2013. Integrated Science registered 68% pass and Information Technology registered 64% pass.
The institution is proud to report that a number of areas have continued to do well having again registered 100% pass. These were: Visual Arts, Physical Education and Electronic Document Preparation and Management. Agricultural Science registered 98%, which represented 60 students passing.
The Technical and Vocational areas have also continued to do well: Technical Drawing 83%; Home Economic Management 92%; Food and Nutrition 85%; Building Technology 85%; Clothing and Textile 67% and Electrical Technology 57%.
Oracabessa High strongly supports a holistic approach to education to the extent that a number of its co-curricula activities have produced participants who have gone on to proudly represent the country. Oracabessa High school is the ISSA under 19 Male Volleyball Champions for 2013-2014, and has been national champion for the last three years at the under 15 level of the competition. Most of the members of this team did national duties in the Caribbean Under 16 Championships in 2013. Two of Oracabessa’s players, Shavar Bryan and Rojey Hutchinson went on to represent Jamaica in the NORCECA Caribbean Beach Volleyball Championship and later represented Jamaica in the Youth Olympics in Nanjin, China in August 2014. It is important to note that coach Adrian Ramdeen (a past student) did national duties as the coach of the team at the Youth Olympics in Nanjin, China.
We salute all our Top Achievers in academics and sports and we also salute and commend our hardworking teachers who took on the challenge to add value to the lives of our students and in so doing raise the banner of excellence for Oracabessa High School. They represent the true embodiment of our motto:”Be satisfied only with the Best”
