As teachers of multi-grade school, you are normally faced with more challenges and constraint than a teacher in a mono-grade school or class. Multi-grade teaching has remained an unrecognized phenomenon globally including Jamaica. Base on this concern the writer sets out to introduce you to the nature of the multi-grade school and the challenges that principal, teachers and students experiences in the implementing curriculum instruction. Multi-grades are found in very rural or remote communities, where population are scattered. Within these areas there are not many teachers or students, so one classroom has different age group and grade. These students are in one class and taught by one teacher; for example one class comprises of grades 1, 2, 3, &4, 5, 6 or 1&2, 3&4 and 5&6. The multi-grade class structure is known by various names in different countries; these include 'composite' or 'combination' classes, 'double' classes, 'split' classes, 'mixed-age' classes and 'vertically-grouped' classes (Veenman, 1995). Multi-grade school can be defined as a class in which students of two or more adjacent grade levels are taught in one classroom by the one teacher for most if not all of the day, such multi-grade classes are embedded within the traditional graded system: students retain their grade level labels and are promoted through the school with their grade level cohort (Mason & Burns, 1996; Veenman, 1995).
Expectations of Teachers in Multi-grade Schools
While there is agreement in the literature that greater demands are placed on teachers in multi-grade as opposed to single-grade teaching, (Veenman, 1995; Veenman, 1996; Veenman & Raemaekers, 1995; Mason & Burns, 1995; 1996; Mason & Doepner, 1998) there is no agreement about whether this affects the quality of teaching. Studies show that teachers cope with the challenges and complexities