MINISTER of Education and Youth Fayval Williams says primary schools are prepared to facilitate the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examinations, which begin February 16.

She noted that this year will be the first post-COVID sitting of the exam, following various interventions put in place to navigate the challenges and learning loss caused by the pandemic over the last three years.

“We did a number of things, and I know each school would have had their separate programmes. We are hoping that the results will be better because of the interventions that we put in the space,” the minister said.

She was speaking during a recent visit to the Homestead Primary and Infant School in St Catherine.

Grade-six students will sit the Ability Test on February 16, Performance Tasks in Language Arts on March 22 and Mathematics on March 23, and the Curriculum-based Test in Language Arts and Science on April 26 and Mathematics and Social Studies on April 27.

Meanwhile, Williams said the Government is working to ensure that “there are more high schools across Jamaica that parents would consider [as top choices for their children]”.

“It’s something we’re committed to working on. We want to have more high schools that parents consider to be choice schools available to them [and closer to] where they live and work in Jamaica,” she said.