The Scholarship and the Saturday Job
Kenisha is 16 and in Form 5 at a school in a rural parish. Her teachers predict she can pass five CSEC subjects and move on to CAPE. Her mother works six days a week in a supermarket, and her grandmother, who lives with them, needs monthly medication that costs about $180. Kenisha works eight hours every Saturday and two evenings a week at a grocery, earning $260 a week, and her Mathematics grade has fallen from 78 per cent to 61 per cent since January. She has started to say she is 'not bright enough' for CAPE and wants to leave school in May to work full time. Her closest friends tease her when she stays back for extra lessons, and she has stopped attending the church youth group she used to lead. Her form teacher has asked for a meeting with Kenisha and her mother.
1. Identify TWO dimensions of the self that are affected by Kenisha's situation, and explain how the evidence in the case shows each one is affected.
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Two dimensions can be identified directly from the case.
- Self-concept (her view of her own ability). The evidence is her statement that she is 'not bright enough' for CAPE, even though her teachers predict five passes. A fall from 78% to 61% in Mathematics is a change in performance, but she has read it as a judgement on her ability. That shift is a change in self-concept, and it is dangerous because it can become self-fulfilling: a student who believes she cannot succeed stops doing the things that would let her succeed.
- The social self (belonging and relationships). She has stopped attending the youth group where she was a leader, and her friends tease her for staying back for lessons. Her sense of belonging is being pulled two ways: the peer group rewards not studying, the teacher rewards effort. Belonging is a basic emotional need, so losing the group is a real cost she is weighing, not mere childishness.
A third dimension, the physical self, is also under strain: eight hours on Saturday plus two evening shifts is a heavy load for a Form 5 student and affects sleep, concentration and health. The examiner wants you to notice that the dimensions interact: fatigue lowers marks, lower marks damage self-concept, and a damaged self-concept makes leaving school look like the only option.
2. Kenisha says she is 'not bright enough' for CAPE. Evaluate this belief and recommend, with reasons, what she should do about school and work over the next six months. Consider short-term and long-term consequences.
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'Not bright enough' is a belief, not a finding. Three pieces of evidence in the case contradict it: her teachers' prediction of five passes, the fact that the Mathematics mark fell only after her working hours increased, and the fact that she is comparing herself with peers who do not carry her responsibilities. The most likely cause of the drop is time and fatigue, both of which are changeable.
Recommendation: stay in school and sit the examinations, but reduce the two evening shifts to one, or renegotiate hours during the exam term.
- Short term: the family genuinely needs the medication money, so cutting all work would create a crisis at home. Dropping one evening shift costs about $100 a week but buys several hours of study: a targeted trade-off, not an all-or-nothing choice.
- Long term: five CSEC passes open access to CAPE, nursing or technical training, and to jobs paying more than grocery work. Leaving at 16 with few qualifications locks her into low-wage work, which in two or three years will make it harder, not easier, to pay for her grandmother's medication.
A fair counter-argument is that immediate family need cannot be postponed until after exams. That is why the answer is not 'ignore the family' but 'share the problem'. The teacher's meeting should involve the mother, and the school's guidance counsellor or a social worker may know of a bursary, a school feeding programme, or assistance with medication costs. If no support exists at all, reduced hours are still better than dropping out, because she keeps the option of qualifications while earning something.
3. Describe TWO specific actions Kenisha could take to strengthen her self-concept and her decision-making, and explain why each would help.
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Action 1: Set one small, measurable academic goal and track it in writing. For example, she could complete one past-paper section per week in Mathematics and record the score in a notebook. Why it helps: self-concept is built from evidence of competence, not from praise. Watching a score move from 61% to 68% over six weeks gives her concrete evidence to set against the belief that she is 'not bright'. It also replaces a vague fear ('I can't do CAPE') with a specific, finishable task, which reduces the feeling of being overwhelmed.
Action 2: Rejoin one structured group activity, even at reduced frequency. Returning to the youth group once a month, or joining a study group, gives her a setting where she is valued for something other than wage-earning. Why it helps: her identity is currently defined almost entirely by the roles of worker and carer. A group in which she is 'the one who organises things' supplies an alternative identity, and the youth group also connects her to adults other than teachers who can act as mentors and references.
Supporting action: write out the options (school plus reduced work, versus full-time work) with costs and benefits listed for herself, her mother and her grandmother. This does not remove the pressure, but it moves the decision from emotion to reasoning. The examiner rewards answers that show why an action works, not just a list of good advice.