SENIOR education ministry officials say they will re-examine two regulations in the set of primary school tests which they believe caused a 10 per cent jump in the number of students sitting the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) this year and a 4.5 per cent increase last year.

One of the regulations permits students to sit the GSAT only once, unlike its predecessor, the Common Entrance Exam, which gave students up to three chances, based on their age at the time of sitting the test.

The other regulation forbids automatic promotion of Grade four students until they have mastered three components in the Grade Four Literacy Test.

The ministry officials admit that both policies have combined to cause a build-up in the number of candidates sitting the GSAT in the last two years.

“Some students, based on when they were born, theoretically could sit the exam (GSAT) three times,” Wesley Barrett, the ministry’s chief education officer, explained. “But with only one chance, many who would have had three chances in the Common Entrance chose,” he said, “to defer sitting the GSAT until the second or third year”.

Last year, 46,500 students sat the GSAT, 1,500 more than in 2000. This year, 50,475 sat the exam in March, forcing the ministry to be now seeking an additional 5,000 Grade seven places in the island’s schools.

“We are certainly going to look at the impact of the policy where there is no automatic promotion at Grade four and also that students can defer the sitting of the exam in any one year,” Barrett said on Wednesday. “We don’t know what effect these had on the numbers this year.”

To meet the need for additional places the ministry constructed and opened two new high schools in St Catherine in the last two years. A third is to be built in St James shortly.

In addition, Barrett said, the ministry also approached several private high schools hoping to purchase places for both grades seven and nine students.

“We have identified some of the private schools that will make available school place,” Barrett said.

At least six high schools where identified in Montego Bay, St Catherine, Manchester and Kingston.

The GSAT replaced the Common Entrance Exam three years ago as the basis on which students are placed in secondary schools. It is the final of four tests given at different grades in primary schools.

The first — the Grade One Inventory Test — is administered in September each year to new Grade one students to check their motor skills, visual and auditory abilities. It is used to inform the school of how ready each child is for school work.

The second exam — the Grade Three Diagnostic Test — helps teachers identify specific strengths and weaknesses in concepts and skills and paves the way for additional help to be given to students who are deficient. It also maps children’s progress in mathematics and in mastering basic skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking standard English.

The fourth test — Grade Four Literacy Test — is administered around May each year and it serves to inform the school whether the students have mastered literacy and numeracy or whether they will need remedial help.

Last year, of 50,000 students who sat the Grade Four Test about 50 per cent achieved full mastery, 20 per cent achieved near mastery and the remainder, numbering 15,000 students, were identified to be “at risk”, that is, they failed to show mastery in four main areas — word recognition, reading, comprehension and writing.

Most schools with at risk students have had to establish special remedial classes to bring them up to the level of Grade four, putting pressure on the schools’ financial and human resources. However, according to senior education officer in the education ministry, James Spencer, at risk students may only repeat one year. Afterwards, “it is expected that the schools will move them up”.

Spanish Town Primary, one of the two largest primary schools islandwide, has 67 at risk students on its current register of 2,464. The school has retained them for a full year in Grade 4 and some have since shown “significant improvement”, said principal Lorna Manning.

All of them will be moved up to Grade 5 this September. “We can’t retain them for two years because of (lack of) space,” Manning explained. “There are a few of those children who appear to be having extremely serious learning problems and even at the end of their primary life they will still have to move up, there is nothing we can do.”

At Half-Way-Tree Primary, at risk pupils are moved up to Grade 5 but they receive additional help, said principal Catherine Malcolm. Every effort, she said, is made to keep the special group to a minimum class size of 30 students.

“It’s possible you will find more children in that special at risk class but we keep it very small,” she said.