Parents satisfied with PEP rescheduling

After many challenges with online learning which resulted in some students being under-prepared to sit their grade-six Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examinations, some teachers and parents are happy about the extension of the examination date.

The National Standards Curriculum/PEP Monitoring Committee decided to cancel the performance-based test section of the PEP examination and rescheduled the ability test to March 24. It was originally set for this Wednesday.

"It is such a relief. I am overjoyed they are not having the performance task," said Valcia Riley, a mother of a grade-six student who will be sitting his PEP exam this year. "The performance task is the hardest part of PEP, and a lot of students were not prepared for it because it requires a lot. And based on the questions I have seen, it is absolutely ridiculous, so I am so happy really that it has been omitted because I am more confident that he will get his first choice," Riley said.

Similarly, Nadisha Williston-Allman, a grade-six senior teacher at the Shortwood Practising Infant, Primary and Junior High School, says now that the performance task is cancelled, many students will have better scores for the overall exam.

"What has happened is that because the students were online for a period of time, we have realised that the writing skills and some crucial mathematical skills that should be there are absent. So, because some of these key elements were missing, it would have been really difficult for some students to do the performance task" explained Williston-Allman.

Still, Williston-Allman says that despite the challenges, her students were prepared to sit all components of the PEP examination on the original dates.