Improving education in Jamaica is a mission we all share. Among the most important and persistent, but perhaps least discussed concerns in the sector is the existence of mutigrade classrooms in Jamaica. This practice, which has diminished over time, but nonetheless continues in a significant number of our schools, is in need of revision, but in the meantime, teachers need to be specially equipped to deal with the challenges these classrooms present.Over the next three days we will examine some of these challenges, focusing our thoughts on how to overcome them and provide students in these classes with a quality education.  Although practiced successfully in some other countries, Jamaica has not quite found the formula for making these classrooms high performing, or for that matter, even average.  Teacher training institutions do not officially recognise multigrade classes as a peculiar classroom type and so do not specificially perpare teachers to teach in such an environment. The result? Teachers improvise and adapt, making it up as they go along and hope for the best.It is my pleasure to moderate this potentially useful forum and hope you will join me as we bring our collective experience, intellect and plain common sense to assisting our community members to meet the challenges of our multigrade classrooms. Our children can only benefit.Wesley Barrett