by ANNA-LISA PAUL
The Ministry of Education (MOE) has denounced claims by several students attending the Sangre Grande Secondary School who turned up to write the English Papers I and II this morning, and who reportedly were told they had to pay $50 for a new school badge before they could enter the facility.
According to a parent of the one of the students who took to Facebook to highlight the issue, she claimed the students were detained outside the school compound for more than an hour in the rain.
Describing the alleged surprise move as the condition used to determine who would be allowed to enter and write the exams, the angry mother wrote:
“Many parents were forced to return to the school grounds to pay fees. Students who were unable to pay the $50 were debarred from writing exams and were congregated outside the premises.”
According to the woman, “Several angry parents who expressed their views of the sudden policy on an exam day were escorted by security out of the gates.”
She added, “After several of these parents took to social media to voice their outrage at the situation, the school Principal changed his instructions and granted access to the detained students to their exam rooms after exams had already started.”
The woman pointed out that even though the current cohort of students are no longer on the school’s roster, they were in possession of valid school ID badges issued back in 2018.
Following the incident, she challenged the MOE to say, “with regards to national exams, are the legitimate forms of ID required by CSEC such as National ID, Birth Certificate, School ID, CSEC Exam Slip sufficient for a person to be granted access to their exams to be seated on time?”
Responding to questions via What’s App after the complaint was received, Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly said, “The principal refuted these claims.”
Expressing surprise over the reported fee on Facebook, Leslie-Ann Bristow stated, “Something is missing from this story.”
Alan Brizan responded, “I think so too because students wrote exams at this school weeks ago without “new” student IDs without any problems.”
Meanwhile, Alicia Gonzales wrote, “Why now they are doing DAT 3 yrs.”
Claiming this was a case of poor timing, some others questioned why such a fee was being imposed, especially now, when finances are strained for many families.
Lee London wrote, “Why spend $50 on a new ID badge now when it would be of no use in two weeks’ time are they forgetting how hard things are now don’t see why if the old one can be still use for the next two weeks.”
Alana Bishop added, “Complete and utter nonsense. These children are already under so much stress…they shouldn’t have to deal with that type of Foolishness. Smh!”
Revealing his brother had been stopped from writing an exam at another school in the Sangre Grande district last week, after fault was found with the shoes he was wearing, Caribbean Prince wrote:
“Real sh-- going on…. at north-eastern an invigilator told my brother he could not enter the exam room because his shoe had a little bit of white on it.”
Alana Montrose replied to him and revealed: “The invigilator has no authority to stop a child for wrong uniform, it’s the responsibility of the school’s administrators….My daughter is doing exam there and she stated that there are many children who are being permitted to write exams with white shoes, etc.”