MONTEGO BAY, St James — While some educators and parents have expressed their confidence in the readiness of grade six students sitting the curriculum-based tests of the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) in this parish, others believe that these youngsters would have benefitted from an extension granted by the Ministry of Education (MOE).

Scottisha Clarke, the mother of a young girl attending the Howard Cooke Primary School, told the Jamaica Observer that she has no doubts her daughter will be successful in her exams. Crediting the young girl’s discipline for her belief, Clarke noted that the impacts of the novel coronavirus pandemic has merely affected her child even during the troublesome months of virtual learning.

“I am confident because I know she can do her work and she is very bright, so mi just a look forward fi she get her first choice which is Herbert Morrison Technical High School. My daughter loves book; so whenever we have no electricity or Internet, she always a read and look over her notes,” said Clarke.

At the Catherine Hall Primary School, parents Charmaine Wright and Tashay Watson waited patiently in the schoolyard for their children to complete the PEP exam. When the Observer caught up with them, they were both confident in their children’s abilities as they believed the school had invested time and resources during virtual and face-to-face learning sessions.

“For Catherine Hall, I think it was a little different because they had a lot more kids online than some other schools. In our kids’ class the teacher went all out, so we didn’t have any problems. I think they are ready and will do extremely well,” Wright said.

Watson, however, expressed concerns about what she described as a high level of marginalised students unable to access virtual classes due to lack of resources.

“I know that a lot of kids are still not ready because of the pandemic, but they will do their best. I hope,” she said.

Principal of Barracks Road Primary School Maxine Coates-Brown was filled with joy when the Observer visited on Wednesday. She noted that this was due to extreme confidence in her students and work done by teachers.

“We feel elated and honoured because we have worked so hard during the pandemic with our students, and they are now at the final stages where they are sitting their examinations. We did a lot of afternoon classes, weekend classes and interactive online sessions. We even worked last week during the holiday to ensure that our students were up to par and ready,” said Coates-Brown.

“We know that they are prepared and will do their very best. I have excellent teachers, supportive parents and students who are always trying their best. Our class cohort sizes were strategically reduced to ensure that the students would benefit from what the teachers were doing. Each class had an average of 25 students, so our teachers were able to manoeuvre the grouping a little bit better,” the principal added.

When the Observer visited the Granville All-Age School, Principal Ann-Marie Brown noted that she was given strict instructions by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to not communicate with the press.

Meanwhile, grade six coordinator at Irwin Primary School, Deverlyn James, noted that she lacks confidence as her students were gravely affected by the implications of the ongoing pandemic.

“I am not as confident as I would want to be due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, but we did our best in terms of preparing our students. We tried to prepare them as best as we could based on guidelines that we were given by the ministry, so it really up to them to translate and apply what we would have taught them,” James told the Observer during a visit to the school on Wednesday.

Though several changes were made to the administration of the PEP components after a meeting by the National Standards Curriculum/PEP Monitoring Committee earlier in February, James believes that these students needed additional time to prepare.

But, she admitted, this extension may have still not been enough.

“An extension would have been nice, but I can understand why they would have gone ahead with the exam because with the mental ability paper we did get some extension and I don’t know to what degree that was profitable,” said James.

The grade six coordinator added, “We find that there is an unrest with the students and on top of trying to get them ready for the exam, we have to be dealing with disciplinary issues while we reorient them back into the system.”