ROSE HALL, St James — Education Minister Senator Ruel Reid has sought to allay fears expressed by the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) that the planned implementation of the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) in September will fail.

PEP is expected to replace the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) as the national secondary school placement examination, which is intended to provide an improved and more complete profile of students’ academic and critical-thinking capabilities at the end of their primary-level education.

On Monday, the newly installed president of the JTA, Dr Garth Anderson said that despite several workshops, the programme remained a mystery.

However, Reid told JTA delegates that more than $200 million have been provided to schools for the implementation of the National Standards Curriculum, which includes PEP, and as of next week the full curriculum distribution will commence and should be completed by the second week in September.

The full roll-out of the National Standards Curriculum comes a year after it was implemented on a pilot basis in 49 schools for students in grades one to nine, at the beginning of the 2016/17 school year.

Reid said his ministry has taken into consideration suggestions from the nation’s teachers, parents and the general public in making provisions for a formal implementation in September.

The minister said teachers of PEP will have similar support to that of GSAT.

“I know, coming out of GSAT, we had so much support for our teachers and as we transitioned to PEP we have to have the same thing — because those are things that will hold your hands for you to know what is expected.

The minister said sample tests were being developed for grade six, which he said are different from performance tasks (school- based assessment) and will be distributed to schools.

By September, he said, full publications will be sent to schools, with sample questions for all three years of preparation for PEP.

The minister said he has seen sample questions which are not difficult. “… So I think is really the absence of of not knowing what are the items to be tested that sometimes get us jittery. So what is important is for us to have the information available to everybody,” Reid noted.

He added that the ministry is working with two publishers to print sample booklets which will be made available to the public by the second week in September.

The minister said while preparation sessions around the island will continue, videos were also being made available, and that social media will also be used to get the message across.

Parents are also to benefit from the sensitisation workshops, the second of which is scheduled to be held at Montego Bay Community College today, while two others are scheduled for region six and three next week. The first had taken place in Kingston.