ROUGHLY three per cent of the grade six students who sat Primary Exit Profile (PEP) have been deemed highly proficient in all four subjects and have been placed in their first choice of schools.

That translates to 1,116 of the cohort of 41,617.

At the other end of the spectrum, some 10 per cent of the cohort are at the beginning level in all four subjects.

That’s according to the Ministry of Education, which yesterday released the general performance data for PEP that replaced Grade Six Achievement Test and was administered for the first time this school year.

“Highly proficient” ranges from 80-100 per cent and means that students demonstrate an advanced level of competence necessary at grade 6 as specified by the National Standards Curriculum, and are ready for grade 7. Students at the “beginning” level, meanwhile, earned between 0 and 24 per cent and demonstrate limited or no evidence of the required competence necessary at grade 6. They will need intensive, ongoing academic support at grade 7.

The other levels of performance for PEP are “proficient” and “developing”. Students deemed proficient (earning between 50 and 79 per cent) demonstrate adequate evidence of the required competence necessary at grade 6. They may need minimal academic support at and/or extended learning activities at grade 7; students at the developing level (scoring from 25-49 per cent) demonstrate partial evidence of the required competence necessary at grade six and will need targeted academic support at grade 7.

The ministry did not release data capturing the performance of the cohort in all four subjects at those two levels.

It did, however, detail the performance in each of the four subject areas — mathematics, science, social studies and language arts.

For mathematics, six per cent is highly proficient; 34 per cent is proficient; 52 per cent is developing; and seven per cent is beginning.

In science, seven per cent of the cohort are deemed highly proficient; 42 per cent are proficient; 44 per cent are developing; and seven per cent is at the beginning level.

For social studies, 13 per cent were rated highly proficient; 50 per cent rated proficient; 34 per cent developing; and three per cent is at the beginning level.

Language arts, meanwhile, registered nine per cent in the highly proficient category; 46 per cent in the proficient category; 36 per cent in the developing category; and nine per cent in the beginning category.

Minister without portfolio with responsibility for education, Karl Samuda, said yesterday that 100 per cent of the students have been placed in seven-year high schools, and that 94 per cent of schools are now considered places of choice “in that students are now selecting a [wider] variety as their preferred school for placement”.

He added that almost half of the cohort have been placed in their top three schools of choice.

‘The ministry was able to achieve this as a result of the provision of additional classrooms to a number of our schools and the phased upgrading of Stony Hill Primary and Junior High, Discovery Bay All-Age, and the commencement of the process for Mico Practising School,” Samuda said.

Permanent Secretary Dr Grace McLean said those were the last three schools to be upgraded.

Dr McLean explained, too, that as of September 2019, schools which previously did not have a sixth form programme will be able to offer an additional two years of schooling through the Career Advancement Programme.

A total of 42,836 students were registered to sit PEP — 22,298 males and 20,538 females — but 41,617 actually wrote the exams.

The ministry announced its decision to depart from using percentage or raw scores to communicate students’ performance in the high school placement mechanism last week. The scaled scores method, it said, is a more accurate measure of student performance, and is in line with international best practice.