ISSA makes changes to its eligibility rules

In an effort to adjust to a Ministry of Education stipulation that all secondary schools are required to implement grades 12 and 13, the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) has made some changes to its eligibility rules.
  One of the changes states that students who are continuing their studies at the school they completed grade 11 will only require ISSA’s minimum academic and eligibility criteria, which are at least four internal subjects with averages above 45 per cent and 80 per cent attendance.

Keith Wellington, vice president of ISSA, said that the adjustments were necessary for the organisation to continue to allow all students a chance to participate in its competitions.

“Previously our rules for students participating in grades 12 and 13 were that they needed to have passed a minimum of four CXC subjects or subjects equivalent to CXC for them to be allowed to participate in competitions in grades 12 and 13 because grades 12 and 13 were optional years of high school,” Wellington explained. “The ministry has now implemented a policy that makes grades 12 and 13 mandatory in all high schools and a part of that policy is that schools will be offering various options that might not require students to pass four CXC subjects. So, some schools may have a grade 12 programme where they may have students who have not passed a subject but they will have a particular course of study gearing the students towards the world of work."

But those students who are looking to change schools after grade 11 will have to pass four subjects or more to take part in ISSA’s competitions.

Wellington also explained that those students who are looking to change schools after grade 11 without the minimum four subjects will have to sit out a year as is required for students transferring in lower grades.