In fairness, all children who have received over 80% to 90% of marks in the SEA examinations should automatically get their first choice secondary school. Zoning very bright children to schools near their homes, especially in low income areas, can be viewed as a type of social engineering. Hoping that a gifted child will make a difference to an underperforming school is especially unfair. The acute disappointment in seeing persons with less marks getting their first choice is easily mental cruelty in the extreme.
We already do not have sufficient supporting services in place in schools to deal with difficult/ mentally disturbed pupils. It is unfair of the Ministry to play dolly house social engineering at this point in time. The calibre of the Head Master/Mistress and teaching staff of underperforming secondary schools will have to be addressed before 'planting' bright children in schools with consistently poor A level results.
If upon checking it is discovered that the sons and daughters of the supporters of the ruling government (regardless of distance from home to school) all got their schools of first choice, crapaud smoke the pipe of the Minister of Education. Much unpopular experimenting has already gone into the restructuring of the SEA examination. Why court more trouble? Theoretically, there is no distance too far to travel to your first choice school. There are always pitfalls that can occur when playing God, even when the action is for the noblest of reasons. Please, have a heart for all concerned in this general election year.
Lynette Joseph