Now that the Secondary Entrance Assessment is over, our test-takers are eagerly awaiting the results. Herein lies the problem. As one local psychologist has cautioned, placing school children's names in the daily papers is not a wise policy.
In our modern society we need to be cognisant of individual as well as family rights. I cannot comprehend how publishing the names and the schools "passed" for in any way promotes our need for fairness and privacy.
Some children are made to feel a sense of shame and embarrassment when they did not attain the result they desired and are then exposed to the nation through this process. In a way, one can consider it emotional or even child abuse. Some may even blame the newspaper business, because on results day the newspapers are sold out.
The Ministry of Education needs to change this practice. It needs to afford parents and guardians the opportunity to opt out of the publication of their child's name and result. At present parents and guardians can now receive their children's results by email and text notification, technologies that were not in place in bygone years, which are now widely used.
As other writers and concern citizens have articulated, what should be published is a report card on a school's performance as to how well each school is achieving the nation's educational objectives. Surely, that is a wiser option because it places the burden on school officials to demonstrate to the nation how well they are managing their schools and charges.
I am sure those adult educators and administrators are more emotionally adept at handling less than desirous results than 12 year old children. The public will be better informed and our SEA children will be release from any guilt or embarrassment associated with publication of their examination result.
Bring sanity back to an insane practice and allow families the power opt out of publication.
The same should be said of the Election and Boundary Commission, where we should be offered the option of opting out or redacting our personal information from databases that are publically available. Sadly, there is even more danger to individuals from an ever increasing tracking mentality that exist in this social-media, information-gathering driven world.
The time has come to change the legislation as it relates to personal information being published without our permission. If we care about the future of our children and privacy concerns, then I appeal to the Ministry of Education, newspapers and politicians to please do the right thing and not the business thing or the convenient thing.
Stephen Patrick
Pt Cumana