Advocacy group wants parents involved in PEP Performance Task

By Kimone Witter    

 

There is a proposal for the Performance Task component of the Primary Exit Profile examinations to be adjusted for the 2025/2026 academic year to include graded assessments for parents.

 

The recommendation comes from advocacy group, Hear the Children's Cry, which says the initiative would engage both parents and students.

 

Nigel Cooper, Director at Hear the Children's Cry, says the idea was developed out of the need to improve family and parenting skills.

 

Mr. Cooper outlined the proposal that will be presented to the Ministry of Education, which he says can involve the parents of the more than 30,000 students who sit the yearly exam.

 

"We're asking [for it] to be done in two grades in the grade four activity at the grade five. So for example... we could ask them to do five activities that would strengthen parenting. Now we don't expect the parents would sit down in the exam room with their children. So it wouldn't be a sit down exam, they're side by side answering, no. These are activities they would take and come back. 

 

"So, for example, in grade four, they could come with five key things that they would want to improve parenting family life. And then in grade five they come back and report on how they're actually doing," he suggested. 

 

Mr. Cooper said an overall 10 per cent of the Performance Task weighting could be dedicated to the proposed parent-child component of PEP.

 

He asserted that data collected from various child protection agencies, including the Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA) and the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA), have shown that more intervention programmes are needed to support parents in child rearing. 

 

Mr. Cooper, who was a guest Tuesday on TVJ's Smile Jamaica, said the advocacy group is awaiting a response from the Education Ministry to its request for a meeting.