All schools, in­clud­ing pri­vate schools which pre­pare adults for CSEC, were closed on March 13. This meant that teach­ers lost at least 9 weeks in prepar­ing CSEC stu­dents for ex­am­i­na­tions in May/June. Stu­dents have not been able to at­tend class­es to fin­ish the syl­labus for their sub­jects.

The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion has an­nounced that ex­ams would be held, be­gin­ning on the week of Ju­ly 13. Stu­dents have been giv­en rough­ly six weeks to fin­ish the syl­labus and pre­pare to write ex­ams. The on­ly good thing is that no Pa­per II would be re­quired, on­ly a Mul­ti­ple Choice and Pa­per III.

The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion has, how­ev­er, agreed that teach­ers from Sec­ondary Schools would be al­lowed to re­turn to schools from June 7 to as­sist stu­dents in the com­ple­tion of their SBA’s. No con­sid­er­a­tion was giv­en to teach­ers from pri­vate schools who con­duct evening class­es for pri­vate can­di­dates, to as­sist their adult stu­dents in com­plet­ing the syl­labus and prepar­ing for the mul­ti­ple choice and the Pa­per III ex­ams.

The MoE has a le­gal and moral right to grant equal time to pri­vate can­di­dates at these pri­vate schools to prop­er­ly pre­pare for the ex­ams in Ju­ly, just as they are do­ing for the school stu­dents for June 7.

Pri­vate schools should be al­lowed to open on June 7 to pre­pare their stu­dents for the CSEC ex­ams that start Ju­ly 13. Pri­vate can­di­dates were forced to stay home and were there­fore not al­lowed to re­turn to class­es af­ter March 13, through no fault of their own.

Most pri­vate schools and their stu­dents def­i­nite­ly did not com­plete the syl­labus for the var­i­ous sub­jects. Adults de­sirous of im­prov­ing their ed­u­ca­tion should not be dis­crim­i­nat­ed against. What is good for the sec­ondary school CSEC stu­dent is al­so good for the adults pri­vate can­di­dates. I be­lieve the prime min­is­ter was not made aware that pri­vate schools and their adult pri­vate can­di­dates need to be al­lowed to re­turn to class­es in or­der to prop­er­ly pre­pare for the ex­ams.

No men­tion was made for them in ei­ther of the phas­es for re­open­ing. Adults have spent good mon­ey and sac­ri­ficed many hours in at­tend­ing class­es af­ter hav­ing reg­is­tered for the CSEC ex­am­i­na­tions with the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion. This would be all in vain now.

Pri­vate schools should be al­lowed to re­sume class­es on June 7, just like the rest of the CSEC prepa­ra­tion in­sti­tutes.

Desks should be prop­er­ly spaced in class­es, one stu­dent per desk. Masks should be worn by all stu­dents.

Choy Man­zano

Man­zano’s Class­es