Most PEP students placed at preferred schools
Published:Friday | June 23, 2023 | 1:33 PM
The Ministry of Education is reporting that 85.8 per cent of students who sat the 2023 Primary Exit Profile (PEP) exams were placed in a school of their choice.
Portfolio Minister Fayval Williams made the disclosure at a press conference at the Ministry this morning.
Williams said 4,134 students or 11.5 per cent were placed at a secondary school within a 10-mile radius of their primary schools.
Similarly, 566 or 1.57 per cent were manually placed at a school in proximity to their home addresses.
The education ministry said arising from changes made to the administration of PEP due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students in 2023 returned to the format of sitting all the components of the high school placement exam.
To assess students and determine their final scores, the Ministry used the results of the Grade Five Performance Task done in June 2022; the Grade Six Ability Test done in February 2023, Performance Task in Mathematics and Language Arts done in March 2023; and the Curriculum-based Test (four components) administered in April 2023.
The education ministry said 36,105 students registered for PEP, of which 18,452 were males and 17,653 females.
Some 31,798 of the students were from public schools while 4,307 were from private institutions.
Noting that the PEP results came two weeks earlier than what obtained last year, the education minister charged that this highlights the competence of the system.
It was outlined that girls outperformed boys in Mathematics and Language Arts, while boys did better in Science and Social Studies.
Williams said there was some level of disparity between boys and girls.
The minister said efforts will have to be redoubled to bring boys up as well as to continue to support girls.
The schools will get access to PEP results at 2 p.m. today.
- Andre Williams
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