THE Government-appointed committee which enquired into last year’s delayed release of GSAT results has recommended that the Ministry of Education and Youth make new, or non-traditional, high schools a priority choice for the best performers.

In a report to Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson, the team said it found no evidence of a compromise of the 2006 GSAT examination process or leakage of information.

It pinpointed the principal reason for the delay as the challenge to find enough Grade 7 places in high schools, especially traditional high schools, to accommodate the GSAT awardees.

The team said that while it supports the choice of high schools afforded the GSAT candidates, members were concerned about the availability of spaces in the traditional high schools and, even moreso, the need for a more equitable placement of “quality students” in the upgraded high schools.

“First, we are unanimous that choice must remain a permanent feature of placement consideration for the foreseeable future, if only because of the psychological influence it wields on performance,” the report said.

“However, even with the provisioning of additional high school spaces, by the building of new schools, mechanisms must be found for implementation in policy that drives a more equitable placement of quality students in these high schools.

“We therefore recommend that some mechanism be found to make a meaningful selection of a ‘new’ high school part of the choice of higher-scoring GSAT candidates. This may entail radical approaches, including the populating of these new schools with, in the first instance, high achievers from the Grade 7 cohort only.”

The team said it detected a misunderstanding among the public of the role of GSAT compared to its predecessor, the Common Entrance Examination.

It called for a better understanding of the philosophy behind the GSAT examinations, especially the placement process, and recommended a sustained public education programme for the dissemination of that information.

It was not commonly understood, by both the public and a significant portion of the educational establishment, that the choice of schools is only one of the criteria used for placement decisions, the GSAT probe team said.

“While the Common Entrance was principally used to determine access to secondary school spaces, the GSAT is more so converged on placement of examinees in Grade 7 spaces. There are also other factors which feed a national anxiety surrounding publication of results that must be acknowledged,” the GSAT probe team said.

These it listed as the widely held belief that traditional high schools were better choices for a good secondary education, so there is a high demand for places in these schools; the outputs from the public primary institutions were getting better and now competitive with the best private preparatory schools; and, most parents hold their child as “above average”.

The report admitted that the belief that the traditional high schools were better choices was supported by the fact that better results were obtained across the board in these high schools. However, examined dispassionately, it became apparent that this was due to factors such as better inputs of students, teachers, teaching, as well as community support.

“So the process, time and history have been beneficial to the traditional high schools. That these factors are important to school development is readily apparent from the growing reputation of some new high schools after 20-something years of operation,” the team said. “Notwithstanding, and with the perception of the premium, there is an inordinate pressure placed on the system to find Grade 7 spaces in the traditional high schools.

“All-age and junior high school spaces are even less desirable for students and their parents. In fact, they are the least desired and quite frankly, for more than many good reasons. This brings a powerful influence to the public mind,” the report said.

The team claimed, too, that while the improvement in the quality of students emerging from the primary schools was important, it has been under-reported.

“The bald fact is that, if we use quality of output as a measure of performance, our public primary schools are doing much better than is supposed. The anecdotal information suggests it and the GSAT trend data confirms it. This phenomenon is driving the ‘average’ scores higher, making eligibility for the prized traditional high school spaces even more competitive,” the report said.

“There is a considered view that the lack of restrictions or guidelines for choice militates against the growth and development of schools, even as it undermines the philosophy associated with the current placement policy,” it added.