STRUCK by the outcry from parents and educators alike about “difficulties” with the design of the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) as an assessment tool, Education Minister Fayval Williams has assured that the cries have not fallen on deaf ears.

“We are hearing concerns from parents more and more about the difficulties. As I probe into it I understand that all the exam questions do come from teachers, but given the fact that more and more persons are saying: ‘Look at this, look at this,’ we will examine this, because PEP has been around for six to seven years and we can examine it,” the education minister told the Jamaica Observer on Monday during an interview.

PEP, which replaced the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) in the 2018/2019 academic year as the national secondary school placement test, comprises a curriculum-based test (CBT), an ability test, and several performance tasks between grades four and six. The grades from the performance tasks are added to the grades the students get from the curriculum-based test (which is based on content from the grade six curriculum only), and comprise their final grade to matriculate to high school. PEP requires that students demonstrate their competencies in authentic contexts by applying their knowledge and critical thinking skills.

Since its introduction, however, concerns have been rife about the ability of teachers to deliver the content, and the demand on students.

In the latest demonstration of this, newly installed president of Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) Dr Mark Smith last Monday called for the review of aspects of the examination, during the investiture ceremony at Jamaica Teachers’ Association 60th Annual Conferencethe at Ocean Coral Spring Hotel in Trelawny.

“Minister, I traverse around this country and I am struck by the plethora of calls from teachers and students re the PEP examination. Some say it is nothing more than GSAT on steroids… and as Jamaicans we don’t use steroids,” Smith said, directly addressing the education minister who was also present.

Smith, in contending that some aspects of the examination are not age-appropriate and very complex, said the attempt to reduce the stress created by having the students sit a single, high-stakes exam (GSAT) has backfired with PEP — which now stretches over a three-year period, causing “burn out among our children”.

“We are asking you, Minister, to listen to us; we are on the ground, we see it,” the JTA president pleaded while urging the minister of education to revise the writing of the exam.

“Minister, I believe you and your team will take counsel and you will revisit and re-examine that. While we embrace the idea and the concept behind the PEP of promoting [a] greater level of creativity, diverging thinking, and critical thinking, we believe some of the challenges lie in the age appropriateness and complexity of some of the tasks the children are asked to do,” Smith said.

“I yearn for a day when our education system will not just create pockets of excellence and a sea of mediocrity but move towards embracing every child having that sense and that opportunity to be everything and everything they can imagine. An inclusive education that does not seek to pick some winners and others as losers but understands that as human beings our trajectory to success takes different paths,” he added.

Speaking with the Observer on Monday, Williams said, “we have to listen to our stakeholders and we don’t want the children to feel that this exam is so excruciatingly hard; that’s not the purpose of an exam. So, you will hear more from us as we interrogate the content, the types of questions and so forth. We want our children to go through school enjoying the experience”.

“For exams, obviously you have to put in some work but it should not be to the point where you are feeling so stressed out; I mean these children are at a tender age right now. I can assure you, we have heard the cries and we will do the interrogation, and if changes are needed, changes will be made,” the education minister pledged.

In June this year the education ministry announced that a comparison of students’ performance in the 2024 Primary Exit Profile (PEP) with pre- and post-COVID-19 results showed overall improvement across all subject areas in the proficient and highly proficient categories.

For mathematics, 60 per cent of students were ranked in the proficient or highly proficient category this year compared to 2019 when only 41 per cent of students were in the highly proficient and proficient category. That figure moved to 57 per cent in 2023.

For language arts, 67 per cent of students were ranked as proficient or highly proficient, representing a seven-percentage-point increase when compared to 2023.

For science, 70 per cent of students were placed in the proficient or highly proficient category. In 2019, only 49 per cent of students were in the highly proficient or proficient category; this jumped to 64 per cent in 2023.

In social studies, 72 per cent of students were categorised as proficient or highly proficient, moving from 63 per cent in 2019, and 67 per cent in 2023.