Carisa Lee

Re­porter

carisa.lee@cnc3.co.tt

Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly wants the over 17,900 stu­dents sit­ting the 2025 Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment (SEA) ex­am to­day to know that re­gard­less of what hap­pens, it is not the end of their ed­u­ca­tion­al jour­ney.

“It’s just the start; this does not de­fine your worth, your po­ten­tial and it does not de­fine what you be­come for the rest of your life,” she said.

In a video post­ed to the min­istry’s so­cial me­dia pages yes­ter­day, Gads­by-Dol­ly con­grat­u­lat­ed the stu­dents on reach­ing this mile­stone and thanked their par­ents and ed­u­ca­tors for get­ting them this far.

But she re­mind­ed the Stan­dard Five stu­dents, who will fill over 540 cen­tres, that there would be many more his­toric mo­ments in their life­time.

“So, take a deep breath, take the step, stay fo­cused, and do your best. That is all we can ask of you, and when this ex­am is over, the rest of your life be­gins,” she saidd.

Mean­while, T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) pres­i­dent Mar­tin Lum Kin asked par­ents not to use the ex­am to val­i­date their chil­dren’s worth or ex­is­tence.

“They are worth more than an ex­am­i­na­tion,” he said.

Lum Kin con­grat­u­lat­ed all his mem­bers who taught the stu­dents through­out their jour­ney. He em­pha­sised that suc­cess in the ex­am was not about get­ting their first choice but over­com­ing all the ob­sta­cles that made the process chal­leng­ing.

“Many have not at­tained their first choice but went ahead and be­came very suc­cess­ful and made pos­i­tive con­tri­bu­tions to our coun­try; whichev­er school you may be as­signed to, go out there and make the best of it,” he said.

Clin­i­cal psy­chol­o­gist Dr Di­anne Dou­glas ad­vised par­ents to set the tone to­day and im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter the three-hour-long ex­am.

“If the par­ents can self-reg­u­late and man­age them­selves, the chil­dren tend to mod­el that as well. For to­day, par­ents must re­main calm, as they are of­ten more anx­ious than their chil­dren. Say to your son or to your daugh­ter, Guess what? You do your very best,” Dou­glas said.

will see about. We’ve got this,” Dou­glas said.

Dou­glas ad­vised par­ents to take ad­van­tage of all the restau­rants that had treats for chil­dren, free of charge and not to bar­rage them when the ex­am is over about how they did.

“Do not grill your chil­dren on what they did in the es­say, what they did for maths, what they did for Eng­lish. It is over,” she stat­ed.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar called on the Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion and Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Mar­vin Gon­za­les to en­sure that all pri­ma­ry schools in the crime hot spot ar­eas are al­so giv­en spe­cial se­cu­ri­ty for to­day’s ex­ams.

“This in­cludes po­lice pa­trols and even po­lice guards if deemed nec­es­sary. Stu­dents in these ar­eas de­serve to write these cru­cial ex­ams in men­tal and phys­i­cal com­fort and safe­ty as much as their coun­ter­parts through­out the coun­try to have an equal chance of pro­gress­ing in their aca­d­e­m­ic pur­suits,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

She said giv­en the un­prece­dent­ed crime and vi­o­lence wave that has en­gulfed Trinidad and To­ba­go in the past decade, many stu­dents in schools in crime hot spots have been forced to en­dure trau­ma, as gang war­fare and ram­pant crim­i­nal­i­ty per­sist out­side their school doors in broad day­light.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader con­grat­u­lat­ed the over 17,000 stu­dents for reach­ing this far.

“I am very proud of every one of you,” she said.

Mean­while, po­lit­i­cal leader of the Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance Gary Grif­fith told the young­sters that their courage, char­ac­ter and com­mit­ment to do­ing their very best was all that mat­tered.