RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

All sys­tems are in place for the smooth ad­min­is­tra­tion of the Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment (SEA) ex­am­i­na­tions, with 17,937 stu­dents set to sit the test to­day.

Stu­dents will write the ex­am at cen­tres na­tion­wide, as au­thor­i­ties as­sured par­ents and stu­dents that there will be no dis­rup­tions.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said clear in­struc­tions have been is­sued to en­sure the safe and or­der­ly con­duct of the ex­am­i­na­tions.

Speak­ing di­rect­ly to stu­dents, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, “I ex­tend my very best wish­es to each of you for suc­cess, strength and peace of mind.”

She en­cour­aged stu­dents to re­main calm and con­fi­dent.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar ex­plained that all rel­e­vant agen­cies have been mo­bilised to main­tain or­der, qui­et and se­cu­ri­ty at ex­am cen­tres, al­low­ing stu­dents to per­form at their best.

“This year, you sit these ex­am­i­na­tions sup­port­ed by a Gov­ern­ment that is strength­en­ing the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem and im­prov­ing the con­di­tions in which you learn,” she said.

She added, “We are ex­pand­ing ac­cess to dig­i­tal tools by pro­vid­ing free lap­tops to all Form One stu­dents, and tak­ing firm ac­tion to tack­le bul­ly­ing and en­sure that schools are safe, sup­port­ive en­vi­ron­ments where every child can fo­cus and suc­ceed.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the ex­ams al­ways re­mind her of her tenure as Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion in 2000, when she pi­o­neered uni­ver­sal sec­ondary ed­u­ca­tion, guar­an­tee­ing every child a place in sec­ondary school and ex­pand­ing op­por­tu­ni­ty for thou­sands.

She said the SEA ex­am­i­na­tion emerged from that deep com­mit­ment to fair­ness and ac­cess.

Mean­while, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath al­so gave firm as­sur­ances that prepa­ra­tions are com­plete, dis­miss­ing ear­li­er con­cerns that the ex­ams could face dis­rup­tions due to is­sues in­volv­ing su­per­vi­sors.

Ear­li­er this week, mes­sages cir­cu­lat­ed sug­gest­ing a pos­si­ble boy­cott over out­stand­ing trav­el­ling al­lowances owed to some su­per­vi­sors.

Sources in­di­cat­ed that some of­fi­cers had not been paid for months and were frus­trat­ed over de­layed pay­ments, in­clud­ing salary in­creas­es and back­pay.

How­ev­er, Dr Dowlath said he was un­aware of any planned ac­tion.

“I am not aware of any planned ac­tion to not mon­i­tor the SEA,” he said, not­ing that su­per­vi­sors and cur­ricu­lum of­fi­cers have con­tin­ued to car­ry out their du­ties.

Mean­while, Op­po­si­tion leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les of­fered words of en­cour­age­ment to stu­dents, urg­ing them to stay fo­cused and be­lieve in them­selves.

“You have spent many days learn­ing, prac­tis­ing and do­ing your best…You must be­lieve in your­self,” she said, while al­so thank­ing par­ents and teach­ers for their sup­port.

A se­nior source told Guardian Me­dia that while some su­per­vi­sors and cur­ricu­lum of­fi­cers are dis­ap­point­ed by de­lays in al­lowances, all key per­son­nel re­main com­mit­ted, say­ing, “par­ents should have no fears of any hic­cups on ex­am day.”

Sup­port ser­vices have al­so been ramped up to en­sure a smooth ex­pe­ri­ence for stu­dents.

The Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) said it has im­ple­ment­ed mea­sures to guar­an­tee a re­li­able wa­ter sup­ply at all cen­tres, in­clud­ing the de­ploy­ment of wa­ter trucks, stand­by re­sponse teams and ded­i­cat­ed sup­port lines for schools.

Sim­i­lar­ly, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion an­nounced that an ad­di­tion­al hot­line has been ac­ti­vat­ed to ad­dress any elec­tric­i­ty is­sues.

The com­mis­sion al­so con­firmed that no planned pow­er out­ages are sched­uled for ex­am day.

In all schools, SEA pack­ages and fold­ers have al­ready been or­gan­ised, and stu­dents have al­ready been in­formed about seat­ing arrange­ments, can­di­date num­bers and tim­ing.