ALL 51,204 primary and preparatory school students who sat the 2006 Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) – an increase oof 1,960 over last year – have been placed, the education ministry confirmed last night.

The bulk of the students – 37,785 got their school of choice – and 37,932 students will be going to high school in September, Maria Jones, the permanent secretary in the ministry told the Observer.

Jones, giving the assurance that the GSAT results would be out sometime today, hoped the good news would make up for the disappointment felt by the students, teachers and parents who waited in vain yesterday for the promised results.

But those wishing to see the list of scholarship winners will have to wait until the middle of next week for those results, she said.

The excitement that was building all day yesterday over the anticipated release of the GSAT results, turned sour by nightfall, as it became clear that the education ministry could not fulfil its promise after a two-week delay.

Last year, the GSAT results were released on June 16.

Jones acknowledged the magnitude of the decision to bring the process into the modern era, by putting the results on CD roms for schools equipped to receive it, as well as on hard copy for those who could not.

“The good news is that we are providing more information at this time than in previous years when the schools would get the placement results in June but had to wait until September for the grades. Now they are getting everything all at once,” she said.

Some schools are without up-to-date computer software to access the information on CD and Jones said they would receive their results on hard copy but would receive the CDs as well, ensuring that as soon as they receive computers they could begin to utilise the discs.

However, disgruntled representatives from several schools in the Corporate Area yesterday expressed their dissatisfaction at the delay, saying it was the result of disorganisation at the ministry.

“We were told by the ministry that the results would be out today but we didn’t receive anything. We are very upset,” one male teacher at the Half-Way-Tree Primary School told the Observer.

Teachers at the Calabar Primary and Junior High and St Richard Primary in Kingston said they had to listen to the radio to hear that the results would be out the next day, as no one from the ministry had contacted them.

Telephone receptionists at the ministry’s offices and at primary, preparatory and all-age schools islandwide were kept busy yesterday as parents called in vain to find out how their children had fared.

“The phone has been ringing off the hook,” remarked a member of the administrative staff at Half-Way-Tree Primary School, just before the phone rang again.

“We had our prize-giving exercise (on Wednesday) so we just had to go ahead without that part (prizes for GSAT performance),” said principal of the institution, Catherine Malcolm.

A staff member at the St Andrew Preparatory School said some parents had to delay travel plans as they waited to hear at which school their children would be placed.

The Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA) also lashed the ministry for what it said was its failure to deal with the lack of modern computers in the island’s primary schools, which would allow all to access the electronic version of the exam results.

Staff at the ministry were working late into the evening to ensure that the results are dispatched to the ministry’s regional offices islandwide today, noting that Jones had promised to have them out between Thursday and Friday.

Meanwhile, Jones said that of the 53,107 students who had enrolled to sit the GSAT on March 30 and 31 this year, 51,204 eventually took the placement test, seen as a ticket to a secondary education and a better life for thousands of students from poor homes.

In her breakdown, she disclosed that in addition to the 37,932 students being placed in high schools, 8,201 would go to junior high; 2,772 to all-age schools; 2,129 to technical high schools and 19 to special education schools.

Jones was upbeat about the male-female ratio, noting that 25,376 males were placed, against 25,828 females, a difference of 452. Last year, the difference was 700 females.

Jones urged understanding of the challenges inherent in placing so many students, saying that new schools and classrooms were being built, some of which would come into the system in time for the start of the new school year, as the government attempted to catch up with the growth in population.

With additional reporting by Tyrone S Reid and Luke Douglas