MANCHESTER, Jamaica – Education Minister Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon has reiterated that changes are to be made to the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examination to ensure literacy among children leaving primary school.

“We have some suggestions to change things in September, but as always we don’t want to unilaterally do it. We want to make sure that what we are looking at actually matches with the recommendations that are coming in from the key stakeholders, so I expect that during the summer I will be able to announce changes to PEP. There will be changes to PEP,” she said on Thursday in Mandeville.

Morris Dixon was responding to a question from a journalist at the Belair High School when she made her point regarding PEP, including the need for increased literacy.

“We have too many children leaving primary school who are not literate and in my mind what is the point of having a heavy curriculum and heavy material to go through and you are not literate. At a minimum every child should leave primary school literate, that is our goal,” she said.

“In September we have committed that we are going to timetable reading, which is a part of our commitment to that literacy focus, it is not on the timetable now in our primary schools and it needs to be, because we are not serving those children well,” she added.

Morris Dixon emphasised the importance of reading for children with planned changes to the entire primary school timetable.

“The changes to PEP also match changes at primary level for grade one, two and three where we are going to be doing a lot of exciting things, because Jamaica cannot be happy with students leaving primary school not able to read,” she said.

The minister shared her own experience in relating to the challenges with the current format of PEP.

“The Grade six PEP exam we know is challenging for a lot of students and as a ministry and as a minister, I listen to everybody. I listen to the parents. I listen to the teachers. I listen to the students and the students have told me when I see them in first form and second form they still feel the stress from grade six and from PEP,” she said.

“I have said tell me how you think we can fix it. I have also met with the Jamaica Teachers’ Association and I said please tell me ‘we liaised with the teachers’ and come back and let me know how you think you will fix it,” she added.

Said Morris Dixon: We have already started the process of review in the ministry, because we want to look at the content, is it too much content. I can tell you as a parent with PEP last year with my child, I felt like I was doing PEP and I can tell you that I was stressed after PEP and so I understand the pain of many parents. I understand the pain of the children. I understand the pain of the teachers, all of the content that they have to be preparing and that is why we have been actively looking at it in the ministry”.