Thousands of 11-plus children will be entering secondary school in September in a new environment with unfamiliar faces, while a few will return to their old classrooms and teachers to speedily improve their scores of 30 per cent or less.
This year 17,615 pupils wrote the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examination. Of that figure, 16,964 secured places at secondary schools throughout the country, while the remaining 651 have to endure the mental stress and horror of re-sitting the exam. Prime Minister Patrick Manning, on Friday, lauded the performance of Trinidad and Tobago students, saying it was of a higher quality than those in other territories in the Caribbean. He said it was because of the collaborative efforts of the Government, parents, teachers and students.
This 3.7 per cent of the unplaced SEA population for 2009 might go unnoticed in comparison to the majority who have the chance to move ahead on the academic ladder. A close review of the SEA results on the Ministry of Education's (MOE) Web site showed that almost 40 per cent of the pupils of the Nelson Street Boys' RC School in Port-of-Spain have to re-sit the exam. Of the 58 boys who wrote the exam, 22 of them were unsuccessful.
According to the MOE, the overall 3.7 per cent scored 30 per cent or less in the exam. At Arima New Government and Arima Presbyterian schools, 14.2 per cent and 15.1 per cent of the pupils have to re-sit, respectively. Out of the 95 who wrote the exam at Edinburgh Government, 11 were unplaced. Meanwhile, five out of 59 at the Caroni Hindu School and three out of 20 at the Buccoo Government were not placed.
When combined, nine out of 118 pupils of the Belmont Boys' and Girls' RC have to re-sit the exam, while the only two who attended the Cascade School for the Deaf have to repeat the exam. Many will be anticipating awards and recognition later on for placing in the first 100 or 200 as top achievers in the nation and now that the July/August vacation is under way, some successful pupils will be rewarded with expensive vacations, high-tech gadgets, or cash.
Some repeaters will be scolded or forced to commence extra lessons with the hope that they will do better next year. When the principal of Nelson Street Boys' was contacted for a comment on the school's SEA results, she said, "I have just been assigned to this school and the Ministry of Education would better be able to give you that information."