KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information has announced several changes to the administration of the Primary Exit Profile (PEP), to accommodate students impacted by the passage of Hurricane Melissa last October.

The ministry has also modified the National Standards Curriculum, which is used in primary-level institutions and up to the grade-nine level.

Acting Chief Education Officer, Terry-Ann Thomas-Gayle, made the disclosure during a post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister in Kingston, on Wednesday.

As it relates to the national curriculum, she explained that the ministry has revised the targets or objectives that students need to meet to move to the next grade level.

“We have done a reprint of the curricula for grades one through nine, and we have sent it out in hard copies to the affected regions, and electronic copies are available for the other parishes,” Thomas-Gayle shared.

She detailed that for Language Arts at the grade-six level, the objectives have been reduced from 138 to 90.

“In mathematics for grade four, we went through and we looked at all the objectives for mathematics at grade four. We had 124 objectives. We looked at the most essential objectives for mathematics… that means the students must achieve these in order to move to the next grade level… and we saw where we had 48 such objectives,” she explained.

The acting chief education officer emphasised that while the objectives have been condensed to focus on those that are essential, there will be no disadvantage for students.

“I want to reassure the public that condensing to a smaller number of objectives, the students will not be at a loss,” she said.

Meanwhile, Thomas-Gayle noted that following extensive consultations, the ministry has finalised its sitting components for PEP.

At the grade-six level, students will sit the ability test, which will consist of 40 multiple choice items.

“The ability test looked at quantitative and verbal reasoning. You really need to be exposed to the curricula up to at least grade three to achieve this. So, this is not based on the grade-six curriculum,” the acting chief education officer explained.

She stated that grade-six students will also sit the mathematics curriculum-based test (with numeracy items) and the Language Arts curriculum-based test (with literacy items).

The curriculum-based tests for mathematics and Language Arts both consist of 60 multiple choice items.

The grade-six tests will be administered between April 29 and April 30, 2026.

“At grade five, our students will only do performance tasks in Language Arts and mathematics. The performance tasks will see the students responding to four to six open-ended questions,” Thomas-Gayle outlined.

She noted that the grade-five tests will be completed on June 10, 2026.

At the grade-four level, students will complete the literacy and numeracy tests on June 24, 2026.

Thomas-Gayle emphasised that the placement mechanism for students moving to high schools will remain the same.

“Our grade-six students will be transitioning to high school using their grade-four PEP exam that they did in 2024, their grade-five PEP exam that they did in 2025, and the components being done at grade six in 2026,” she said.

The acting chief education officer noted that the ministry will, however, use a new placement mechanism for grade-nine students transitioning to high schools, as the grade-nine achievement test for 2026 has been suspended.