rishard.khan@guardian.co.tt
The next few months are set to be some of the most stress-free for almost 19,000 pupils who sat the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) yesterday. However, while they may not be focused on academia until September, it’s the perfect opportunity to focus on other aspects of their development, allowing them to socialise and grow their skill set.
Describing this current period in their development as “middle-childhood,” clinical psychologist Hayley Panchoo yesterday said it’s important they focus on socialisation.
“These kids undergo different tasks and things that are crucial to their development at this stage. A big part of that is actually friendship, a big part of that is peer relations. It’s what we call concrete operational skills for developing skill building beyond just academics and things like self-evaluation, the way they see themselves, the way they view their identity and who they are,” Panchoo said.
“For so long, some of this stuff was actually put on the back burner. You know, you’re not really going to the movies as much, or doing things with friends as much but you so focused on preparing for this really major exam...I think it is absolutely integral for parents to invest now in this time afterwards in these different aspects.”
While this is good general advice, she said it’s especially crucial for this cohort of pupils who wrote yesterday’s exam. These children would have been in their final terms of Standard 2 when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, locking them inside with online schooling. When they returned to physical classes in April 2022, they were in the last term of Standard 4. This meant they went from being locked inside for two years directly into exam mode for the next year, often abstaining from the more social aspects of life as restrictions eased, shew noted.
“A lot of times we tend to think, especially how our Caribbean culture is, we tend to think a lot in terms of academics and education, which is obviously so necessary, but it’s also integral to cultivate these different aspects of the child’s development and we as parents are doing our children a disservice if we only focus on the academic aspect and we don’t make strides to also make strides to cultivate these different aspects,” Panchoo said.
She said this development could be a simple as encouraging them to get involved in extra-curricular activities at their school like sports or the arts. But even if these are not available, she said parents can also organise some of these activities.
“If the school offers that, then great. If not, I think there are ways to seek out these avenues whether it’s extracurricular or people who might offer these types of services where people could go or even just organising times with friends,” she said.
“Let’s go to the movies, let’s grab them pizza, let’s go for ice cream. Allow them to have these interactions with their friends outside of the pressure of oh my gosh we have this looming exam over us.”
