The SEA examination is over and I wish the very best to all students who sat it. I also thank the teachers who, despite a drastically failing education system, have struggled to ensure that all students were well equipped to sit the examination. This, despite the adverse changes to the primary education that are hailed by the know-it-alls as an astounding success in the development of our students. Let's address some of these changes:
Movement of the SEA date:
How many readers believe that it is prudent to place an examination for 11-year-olds just a couple weeks after a vacation period? What happens during this vacation period after the adrenaline rush from January to March? Does the adrenaline continue to flow during: trips to the beach, TV watching, computer games, mall trips and movies?
Which one of us would love to, after full-time tuition, have an examination after a two-week vacation? I believe not a single one, in fact we will be opposed to it. However, it is imposed upon our little children, why? Because they have no voice, and the decision-makers in our society see this as natural progression.
Thankfully this misstep was nullified by dedicated teachers who gave free lessons and held classes over the vacation period to ensure students' continuity in studies.
I again challenge readers, which one of you would honestly say that, on your vacation period, you would serve the public or their children for absolutely no compensation whatsoever? Again, I believe that the answer is not a single one.
Introduction of the Continuous Assessment Component:
The aim of this programme was to reduce the stress and workload of SEA students by continuously assessing new subject areas during Standard Four and five. Again I ask, has the SEA workload and the stress and anxiety associated with it been reduced? No one will answer "yes."
The SEA examination:
Who are the professional couriers that collect, secure, transport and supervise the distribution and collection of completed examination scripts? The answer is–teachers. Teachers drive, cycle, walk, run or take a bus or taxi to the various education offices at 6.30 am on the morning of the examination to collect the test scripts which are sealed only in plastic packets.
What happens from 6.30 am to the distribution of the papers at 9 am one cannot be sure since the papers remain only in this teachers' hands during transportation. (With modern technology and social networking this may be frightening to some).
Upon completion of the examination at approximately 12.30 pm, the scripts are placed again into plastic packets and sealed with masking-tape which is signed by the supervising teachers. Our children's answers are now secured since we all know that masking-tape is irremovable and cannot be resealed. The teachers have until 4 pm to drop the papers off at the education offices.
Can we truly trust teachers with the security of our children's SEA answer scripts? Not a single one will answer "yes."
SEA scores and placement:
Is May 7 to June 30 enough time to transport 19,000 papers to Barbados, facilitate CXC's marking, rechecking and double checking of the papers then transporting the papers back to Trinidad? Some may agree, but what about the additional component of student-placement into secondary schools? Is this enough time for this exercise to be thoroughly and fairly done? Most may disagree. At present students are placed in secondary schools based on all of the below-mentioned criteria: scores in Mathematics and Language Arts, choices of schools, order of choices of schools, home address, religion, and secondary schools siblings attend, education zone of primary school, age of pupil, number of previous SEA sittings and CAC marks brought forward.
Are all these criteria adhered to and all pupils given a fair assessment and treated equally or are our children treated as in the Animal Farm Quotation, "some are more equal than others?" Why aren't the placement criteria and marked papers given to students with their results?
Numerous parents and teachers can verify, over recent years, that pupils who attain a high percentage go to mediocre schools while pupils with lower percentages gain their first-choice schools. The ministry's explanation for this discrepancy is always "zoning and integration of students."
Now I ask: Does anyone believe that zoning and integration is done at SAGHS, QRC, CIC, the convents, and Presentation colleges? Not a single one!
Last year, I observed two male students who attended the same primary school, lived in the same area, had the same religion, got the same CAC marks, and had the same choices of schools. One student received 85 per cent and 78 per cent in Mathematics and Language Arts respectively; he was placed into his first choice school. The other student received 89 per cent and 96 per cent in Mathematics and Language Arts respectively and was placed in the school of his third choice. How could this latter student have felt? Is this not child abuse? When questioned, no official of the school knew why this was so!
Since the cries of our young children go unheard, we as parents must stand firm and ensure that their rights are not trampled upon and that they receive fair, just and equitable treatment in our educational institutions.
Indar Dhaniram
Arima