JTA still awaiting PEP mock exam results

DR GARTH Anderson, president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), said he is still awaiting the official results of the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) mock exam after he made a request to the education ministry close to a month now.

Education Minister Ruel Reid had told a press conference earlier this year that 83 per cent of the students actually scored satisfactorily on the performance task assessment. He had, however, expressed some concerns about science, disclosing that only 22 per cent of the students who sat the exam had achieved satisfactory results for the subject.

Reports have indicated that the results were much worse than what was announced.

Anderson told The Gleaner that while he suspects that the results are woefully unsatisfactory, he has nothing formal in hand to deny or confirm the numbers.

“I cannot speak definitively to the authenticity of those numbers being given, simply because we have requested the breakdown and we are still awaiting that. It is about a month ago now and we are still awaiting the formal release of the numbers to us in the JTA,” he said.

“We have made it quite clear from the onset that the results would not be looking great. In fact, that is why we had started to make our observations known pretty early, to treat with the difficulties we saw right after the sitting of the performance task examination.”