DESPITE the learning challenges spawned by the novel coronavirus pandemic, some principals are pleased with their students’ performance in the 2021 Primary Exit Profile (PEP) this year.

Principal at Emmanuel Kinder Prep in Manchester, Yasmin White said her cohort of 20 students did creditably well, as they got scores in the 90s, and will be heading to secondary institutions such as Knox College, Munro College, deCarteret College and St Elizabeth Technical High School .

“I feel good knowing that they did well because the teachers put in a lot of hard work. We did varied methods of assisting the children such as assignments drop-offs for the different subject areas,” White told the Jamaica Observer.

White pointed out that there was a drawback with the period of administration for the examination, which might have impacted the performance of some students.

“The exam was done in the third term of school, which I thought would have been unfair to the students. Naturally, when you start school you begin with the topic that they can manage and the harder topics are usually taught in the third term. Some of the activities [in the test] came up from third term, so it would be unfair to assess them for that term. In 2021 and 2020, we had children who got full scores for the Ability Test, so you can see how it would have affected some of those students now,” she explained.

Another principal, Conroy Griffiths of Eltham Park Primary School in St Catherine, also did a comparison of students’ performances for this year and last year, noting that there were better placements for secondary schools among 113 grade six pupils.

“Performances were good. I was very pleased to see those results from the Ability Test because we had quite a few of our students scoring above 90 per cent on that paper. We have 25 per cent of our cohort going to traditional high schools while last year we had about 10 per cent,” he said.

Eighty-four per cent of the nation’s students were placed in one of their preferred schools, about 12 per cent in secondary level schools in proximity to the schools they currently attend, and about two per cent of the students were placed manually in secondary level schools in proximity to the address they submitted at registration.

Principal L Cecille Palmer of St Theresa Preparatory School lauded the performance of her 30 grade six students who will be attending secondary institutions such as Wolmer’s Boys’ and Girls’ Schools, St George’s College and Ardenne High School.

“These set of children received the full blown impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic. It’s the resilience, stick-to-it-iveness, parental support and peer support that has kept them on track. I knew they were going to do well and I am very pleased. We have had a good year and we just have to give thanks,” she said.

And while Francine Taylor Arnett, principal at Grove Primary School and Infant school in St Andrew, said due to the severe Internet connectivity issues and lack of technological devices for online learning, she is grateful for the results of her 17 students.

“Considering the challenges, we are satisfied. We got passes for Papine High School, Holy Trinity High School, Edith Dalton James High, and Mavis Bank High,” she said.

“We have already assessed our grade five cohort and we are in the process of putting in strategies to improve our academic performance at all grades especially the beginning grades and exams grades,” she added.

Minister of Education, Youth and Information Fayval Williams, in announcing the official release of the PEP results, said 37,278 students registered to sit the PEP Ability Test but 139 were absent.

The Grade Six Ability Test was postponed twice this year. It was originally slated for February 23 and then postponed to March 25 due to the spike in COVID-19 cases.

According to the ministry, there was a slight decline from 60 per cent to 52 per cent in the average students’ performance for the 2021 Primary Exit Profile (PEP) Grade Six Ability Test this year, when compared to last year.