Reid urges stakeholders to support PEP

Education Minister Ruel Reid has urged stakeholders to collaborate with his ministry to ensure the success of the newly introduced Primary Exit Profile (PEP), which will replace the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) as the national secondary-school entrance test starting in 2019.

Addressing a sensitisation and consultation session for teachers at the Brown's Town Community College in

St Ann on Wednesday, Reid said that the new assessment should be given the chance to succeed, and that acceptance and support of PEP is important in enhancing the teaching-learning process.

"This is a new system and there will inevitably be things to iron out. However, together we can address these in a spirit

of cooperation and partnership. So while it is (the ministry's) responsi-bility to ensure that implementation of PEP is successful, as stake-holders, we all must collaborate to achieve the desired outcomes."

At a Gleaner Editors' Forum last Thursday, president of the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA), Garth Anderson, indicated that the association has already responded to the minister's call.

"We committed our-selves to working with the Ministry of Education in the best interest of our students because our concern was primarily with the students in grade six," said Anderson.

The JTA head also told The Gleaner that the association has been invited by the education ministry to sit on a PEP review committee.

Just before the start of the new academic year, the JTA raised concerns about the implementation of PEP and declared that the programme would fail if it continued on the same trajectory.

Since then, the education ministry has been staging sensitisation sessions and workshops across the island in order to ensure a greater degree of comfort with the assessment.