SASCHA WIL­SON

Best wish­es, prayers, tears and ner­vous­ness as stu­dents ar­rive at their re­spec­tive schools to sit the Sec­ondary As­sess­ment En­trance (SEA) ex­am­i­na­tion, to­day. 

Some par­ents ad­mit­ted that they were more ner­vous than their chil­dren. 

Sta­cy Sam­my-Ali and her hus­band Andy Ali, dropped off their son at San Fer­nan­do Boys RC School.  Sam­my-Ali told Guardian Me­dia:

"Even com­ing to school this morn­ing, he was ner­vous be­cause, you know, every­one wants to go to their first choice. But it was a lot of work, a lot of prepa­ra­tion, we are just hop­ing for the best." 

She said last night her son's si­nus­es flared up, and as a re­sult he went to sleep lat­er that she had hoped.

"We had to keep him calm, we end up giv­ing med­ica­tion, but I re­alise was the nerves. He was stressed out," she said. 

Students of San Fernando Boys RC on their way to the exam room for the SEA examinations. [Image by RISHI RAGOONATH]

While Com­mon En­trance pre­ced­ed SEA and was in­cred­i­bly stress­ful in its day, Sam­my-Ali be­lieves the stress lev­el is more.

"If we could do some­thing else to ease that up, I will rec­om­mend that,” she as­sert­ed. “I think it is too much stress on these young chil­dren. It clear­ly showed last night."

An­oth­er par­ent, Sharon Mo­hammed, dropped off her twin boys to sit the ex­am at the same school. While it was dif­fi­cult prepar­ing for the ex­am since they had missed school dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, Mo­hammed said they did and "have done every­thing we could pos­si­bly do to get them ready."

Mo­hammed told Guardian Me­dia her boys had a rest­ful night and got up ear­ly, had their break­fast and said a prayer be­fore head­ing to school.

"We need to find a bet­ter way,” she stat­ed. “I think it is re­al­ly un­fair for 11-year-olds to think that their life is so de­pen­dent on one ex­am. For the par­ents it is very, very stress­ful, so thank God we are al­most there."

Jayelle Young prays with her family outside St Gabriel's Girls RC in San Fernando before sitting the SEA exams. [Image by RISHI RAGOONATH]

At St Gabriel's Girls RC School in San Fer­nan­do, Jer­nelle Young said a prayer with her daugh­ter be­fore she en­tered the school. Ad­mit­ting that she was ner­vous and ex­cit­ed, the moth­er told Guardian Me­dia:

"I think she was the one to calm me down."  

Young said on Tues­day, she took her daugh­ter to Mount St Bene­dict where they prayed and re­laxed.

"Last night we played mu­sic, we danced, so she is ready. She is more than ready," said Young.

Djenaba Balbosa-Marchan hugs her daughter Dwayla Marchan in front of St Gabriel’s RC School in San Fernando. [Image by RISHI RAGOONATH]

An­oth­er par­ent, Djen­a­ba Bal­bosa-Marchan, could not hold back the tears as she dropped off her daugh­ter at St Gabriel's Girls RC School.

"Such an emo­tion­al day be­cause she had worked so hard over the years to ac­com­plish this, to reach this aca­d­e­m­ic mile­stone, and I know she will suc­ceed in Je­sus name," Bal­bosa-Marchan af­firmed.