NPTAJ joins call for Education Ministry to clarify method for PEP placements

 

President of the National Parent-Teacher Association of Jamaica (NPTAJ), Stewart Jacobs, is echoing the call for the Education Ministry to explain how it places students following the successful sitting of the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) exams. 

 

He says there is need for the ministry to clarify to parents why their child was not placed in their preferred school. 

 

Mr. Jacobs says his primary point of contention is the lack of transparency and clear communication regarding placement decisions.

 

"I do wish that the day will come when all schools are in an even keel where you get the school that you get the choice for, and if you don't, then the school that is second or third is perceived as good a school as the first choice. Where there is a clearer understanding that needs to be done here and now is for a greater explanation to be given somewhat to parents why is it that their child wasn't placed in the school of their choice."

 

He pointed out a need for urgent action and resources to make schools within the same geographic area equally attractive. 

 

"Each school by virtue of the performance and so on is given at entry level, so to speak, to enter into that school and if you have a copy on that below that then you have to enter the school that is within that category. And this is sometimes the school that are not ever by appearance.

 

"What needs to be done and quickly is to get schools within a geographic area to be on even keel," he reiterated. "So if you're not going to Immaculate and you're going to Meadowbrook High School, you're going to Merl Grove, you're going to Pembroke Hall, you're living in that geographic area, then you just feel confident we're going to those schools because all the amenities and so on that would be at Immaculate, which is a Grade A, is at Pembroke Hall also."

 

Linvern Wright, President of the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools, has accused the Ministry of Education of not being truthful about how PEP placements are really determined. 

 

Mr. Wright has also renewed the call for a national review of the government's spending priorities. 

 

He argued that the current allocation of resources places far more emphasis on national security than on the education system, which he said is the true long-term solution to social and economic challenges.