Anna-Lisa Paul
The Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) said it will not be taking legal action against the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) for any changes to students grades, saying, rather, that will be the responsibility of the parents who are unhappy or dissatisfied with the marks assigned by the regional body.
In an interview Friday, SDMS’s acting secretary-general Vijay Maharaj said, “We are not filing, but there are parents indicating from our schools, that they will be considering it.”
He added, “There are some students who are waiting to see if there will be any revision of their marks and so forth.”
Maharaj said grading discrepancies had arisen last year after three students received Grade 3s in the online results, but this did not correspond with the Grades 1s on CXC’s master sheet which had been presented to the Ministry of Education (MoE).
“When the principal did call the local registrar (at that time), he said use the master sheet, that it could have been a typographical error being put into the computer system.”
Claiming this was a new dimension that had to be considered, Maharaj said it was human beings entering online grades and, “everybody at some time could make a mistake, so when the master sheet comes to the principal, that is when these things can be addressed.”
CXC’s master sheet is the final version of the exam results.
Maharaj said some parents are adamant that they will not allow the issue to be “put on the sidelines again this year.”
Parents pulling children out of schools
Expressing concerns that have been raised by parents of vaccinated students who last week returned to the classroom alongside unvaccinated students, he revealed, “There is a lot of concern about that and some are even thinking about…well, I know of a couple that have taken their children out and said they will only allow them to go back to school to complete School-Based Assessments (SBAs) and practicals…that they prefer to have them do classes online if possible.”
And although the MoE has announced a discontinuation of online classes for Forms Four to Six students who were mandated to return to the classroom from October 25, Maharaj admitted, “I dare say denominational schools will put it asynchronously.”
He said if parents of students attending public secondary schools decided to pull their children out of school, they would be at a disadvantage.
“It is happening but it is not overly concerning at this time,” he added.
Calling on the Ministry of Health (MoH) to immediately address concerns regarding the enforcement of public health protocols, especially to social distance, Maharaj said students had been seen hugging one another and conversing in groups at the beginning and end of each school day.
Declaring this was not an indictment on the part of school administrators, he said, “When you walk outside the gates, you will see an arm around the shoulder or some holding hands, and you cannot stop that, that is children.”
He said it was uniformed students who could be easily identified and if the COVID-19 virus was to be found spreading among the student population, the blame game could thrust the respective school (s) into an unfavourable light of cause them to be labelled as the point of spread which would not necessarily be true as it would have been outside of school hours.
Maharaj questioned, “Is social distancing in schools really necessary at this stage? And if we are thinking about bringing back Forms One to Three…how would it work?”
These concerns were reportedly brought to the attention of Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly during a stakeholder meeting on Thursday.
On the issue of vaccinated students bullying unvaccinated students as had been reported last week when the two factions came face-to-face in the classroom, Maharaj said the SDMS was not segregating students or screening teachers.
He said, “Principals have told me that more than 95 per cent of teachers are vaccinated and almost 100 per cent of our janitorial and auxiliary staff. I do not know which child is vaccinated or unvaccinated that are attending school and we do not want to know.”
“What we do know is that over 90 per cent have been vaccinated who are turning out in the SDMS schools.”
Approximately 83 per cent of the students attending denominational schools are said to have been vaccinated.