PEP to introduce questions to test students' literacy and numeracy

 

Education Minister Dr. Dana Morris Dixon says questions to test numeracy and literacy are to be included in the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) exam going forward. 

 

The PEP exam is used to transition students from the primary level to secondary educational institutions. 

 

The Gleaner reported in June that more than 70 per cent of the roughly 220 grade seven students at Pembroke Hall High School are unable to read or do so only at the grade three level. 

 

The Education Minister pointed out that the PEP exam in its current form is not a test of numeracy or literacy. Dr. Morris Dixon says the change will help to identify the needs of students. 

 

"You cannot assume that a child that is not proficient in Language Arts is not literate. That's not what the Language Arts test is testing, and so we have to test specifically for literacy. And so we'll add some questions to the Language Arts paper at grade six, just to test where we are with literacy across the country, and that will need no more work. 

 

"So teachers don't need to do any extra classes, no new books need to be bought, we're just going to test where children are, just add some questions to the Language Arts paper that's just a pure test of literacy. And then for numeracy, we'll do the same thing with the Mathematics paper - just adding some questions that will purely test numeracy. And so that's how we're going to be able to actually benchmark where we are in terms of numeracy and literacy," she explained.

 

The Education Minister said principals have the latitude to adjust the curriculum at the grade seven level for students who have challenges with literacy and numeracy in a high school setting.

 

"It makes no sense to have a child go into high school not able to read and you give them all these subjects that they have to do, when they're sitting there unable to read. And so we have said to the principals, flexibility is yours and so if you feel there is a way to do it, talk to us at the ministry and we will work with you to make it happen. There's no one size fits all for every school. But we're also saying to our schools, if you need to cut the curriculum, you don't need to do all those subjects. At the end of the day, what we want are children who leave literate and who have skills that they can use to further themselves in the future."

 

Dr. Morris Dixon was speaking Wednesday at the quarterly media briefing of the Education Transformation Oversight Committee.