Ministry makes PEP adjustments

The Ministry of Education is reporting that the administration of the Performance Task component of the Grade 6 Primary Exit Profile (PEP) has been cancelled.

The exam was scheduled for March 22 and 24.

And the Ability Test, which was set for Tuesday, February 22, has been pushed back to March 24.

However, the Curriculum-Based Tests will go ahead as scheduled on April 27 and 28.

The education ministry indicated that it decided on the changes following a meeting with stakeholders last Friday.

It said the emergency meeting was called against the background of concerns raised about the readiness of students to sit these exams.

The ministry said a recent survey by its School Improvement & Operation Branch found that more than 70 per cent of the teachers who responded to the survey stated that students were not ready for the assessment and that 59 per cent preferred a change in the date of the assessment.

Some 314 persons participated in the survey.

The survey found that the current cohort of students has been in and out of the physical school environment since the second term of grade four and that some students may not have had full access to the curriculum in the remote environment.

It was noted that this may have negatively affected the grasp of fundamental skills that are necessary for the application of analytical thinking that is required to successfully do the Ability Test.