PEP website coming

Minister of Education Senator Ruel Reid has announced that a new website will be launched for the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examination.

Speaking at a meeting of the Rotary Club of Kingston East and Port Royal on Monday at the Eden Gardens Wellness Resort & Spa in St Andrew, Reid said the website will have PEP material for everybody – teachers, parents, and students.

He noted that hard copies of the online PEP material will also be available, given that children have different learning styles and some prefer hard-copy documents.

The education minister also reiterated that the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) textbooks can still be used in preparation for PEP.

“We have said that the GSAT textbooks are quite fine for the content. I’m saying for clarity, yes, the items have changed, but you can use the workbook for reinforcement of the knowledge, but understand that we are asking for more, not just to be able to indicate and say the answer is A, B, C, D… but to write out your answers, show your working and explain the reason for your answer,” Reid said.

“What PEP is going to do is provide the prism to get all our people to be trained at a high level. There is really no magic to it. It is a fundamental shift, and it’s not a shift that Jamaicans cannot manage,” he argued.

PEP is the series of tests which has replaced GSAT as the national secondary-school entrance examination.

It is intended to provide a better and more complete profile of students’ academic and critical-thinking capabilities at the end of primary-level education. It comprises a Performance Task Test, Ability Task Test, and a Curriculum-Based Test.

After his presentation, Reid handed out bursaries on behalf of the Rotary Club of Kingston East and Port Royal to eight students.

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