Matthew Chin

Re­porter

matthew.chin@guardian.co.tt

T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Mar­tin Lum Kin is ques­tion­ing why teach­ers are be­ing asked to con­duct se­cu­ri­ty pro­to­col mea­sures ahead of to­day’s Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment ex­ams across the coun­try.

In a let­ter to school of­fi­cials, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion de­tailed a num­ber of se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures to be fol­lowed from yes­ter­day in­to to­day’s ex­am and un­til its con­clu­sion. The let­ter, which seemed to be draft­ed by the min­istry’s Se­cu­ri­ty De­part­ment, said se­cu­ri­ty per­son­nel must col­lab­o­rate with prin­ci­pals, vice prin­ci­pals and se­nior teach­ers to vi­su­al­ly in­spect the school premis­es for po­ten­tial se­cu­ri­ty threats.

Re­spond­ing to the let­ter, how­ev­er, Lum Kin con­tend­ed that prin­ci­pals, vice prin­ci­pals and se­nior teach­ers lack were not qual­i­fied to do the se­cu­ri­ty checks be­ing asked of them.

“We fur­ther con­tend that prin­ci­pals, vice prin­ci­pals, or se­nior teach­ers have no for­mal train­ing to per­form such se­cu­ri­ty checks. TTUTA ques­tions the mo­tive of the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion to in­crease se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures at the SEA ex­am­i­na­tion cen­tres through­out Trinidad and To­ba­go,” Lum Kin said.

“Is the re­cent bomb threat the rea­son for this?” he added.

He al­so added that this lat­est in­ci­dent has cre­at­ed anx­i­ety among school ad­min­is­tra­tors.

“There are more ques­tions than an­swers, and the last- minute rushed ac­tions by the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion clear­ly demon­strates their un­pre­pared­ness and lack of plan­ning. This lat­est in­ci­dent has our school ad­min­is­tra­tors ag­gra­vat­ed and de­mor­alised,” Lum Kin said.

Tak­ing note of the modus operan­di of the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion as it re­lates to the au­thor­i­ty of the na­tion’s prin­ci­pals, Lum Kin said he con­sid­ered the lat­est de­mands placed on prin­ci­pals to be un­for­tu­nate.

“On one hand, [prin­ci­pals] are not qual­i­fied and don’t have the au­thor­i­ty to dis­miss schools un­der a health and safe­ty threat, but on the oth­er hand they have the au­thor­i­ty and qual­i­fi­ca­tions to make se­cu­ri­ty sweeps – this is ab­solute mad­ness,” Lum Kin said.

How­ev­er, the Na­tion­al Pri­ma­ry Schools Prin­ci­pals’ As­so­ci­a­tion (NAP­SA) said the in­spec­tion of the schools re­quires no spe­cial train­ing on the part of staff.

“The school’s se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cers will in­spect the schools with the prin­ci­pals to con­firm that there is noth­ing out of the or­di­nary with­in the school com­pound. No spe­cial train­ing is re­quired for that,” the as­so­ci­a­tion said.

The NPTA rep­re­sents all the learn­ing in­sti­tu­tions with­in the coun­try.

Speak­ing on CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew yes­ter­day, pres­i­dent Wal­ter Stew­art, who was re­cent­ly ap­point­ed to the po­si­tion, said he felt con­fi­dent last year’s leak of ex­am­i­na­tion pa­pers will not be re­peat­ed as a re­sult of the new se­cu­ri­ty pro­to­cols in place this year.

“Thank­ful­ly, this year, and of course, high com­men­da­tions to the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, they’re putting in place mech­a­nisms and strate­gies to en­sure that there is no re­peat of last year’s leaks or there are no leaks what­so­ev­er in this par­tic­u­lar ex­am at the SEA lev­el,” Stew­art said.

The SEA ex­am­i­na­tions is ad­min­is­tered in three parts: Math­e­mat­ics, Eng­lish Lan­guage Arts, and Eng­lish Lan­guage Arts Writ­ing.

When asked what was in place in the event an un­fore­seen emer­gency takes place dur­ing ex­am­i­na­tions, Stu­art said he was ad­vised that the min­istry would try to en­sure a “sup­ple­men­tal ex­am­i­na­tion”.

“...If those in­ci­dents hap­pen, the child can have a sup­ple­men­tal ex­am­i­na­tion some­time, sub­se­quent­ly... Each child who goes in­to the ex­am­i­na­tion, 18,000-plus of them would be able to write the ex­am­i­na­tions suc­cess­ful­ly. But of course, if there are, un­for­tu­nate­ly, poor sit­u­a­tions...there would be a sup­ple­men­tal ex­am­i­na­tion for the stu­dent,” Stew­art said.

More­over, re­gard­less what re­sult a child gets af­ter SEA, Stu­art wants par­ents to re­as­sure their chil­dren that they still love them, whether or not they re­ceive their first choice.

“Ul­ti­mate­ly, the par­ent has to as­sure the child: ‘Lis­ten, come with me, what­ev­er are the ul­ti­mate re­sults, we still love you, you are still my daugh­ter, you are still my son, I’m still your dad, your moth­er... If, per chance, you don’t get your first choice, please, I still love you, I still care for you,” he said.