ALL IS on target for the timely release of the results of the 2007 Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) next month, according to Sephlin Myers-Thomas, assistant chief education officer in the Ministry of Education and Youth.

Mrs. Myers-Thomas said all the papers for the 53,709 grade six students who sat the examination in March, have been marked.

She also noted that her ministry, through its regional offices has been training school administrators to use the software, which will be used to read the results.

Mrs. Myers-Thomas explained that schools have been given a re-release of the 2006 GSAT results on compact disc. This, she noted, has a training component.

State of readiness

"This is to put them in a state of readiness so they don't have the teething problem as they did in 2006," said Mrs. Myers-Thomas.

The GSAT results are usually ready about the second week in June. However, most schools did not get their results on time last year, as the ministry was having problems finding space for some 3,800 students in region six, which include the parishes of St. Catherine and Clarendon.

The ministry also noted that there were some problems placing the results on compact discs. Specula-tions were rife that the results were delayed because of cheating.

This prompted Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller to order a probe into reasons behind the delay. The investigating team led by Dr. Carlton Samuels, chief information officer of Mona Information Tech-nology Services, found that there was nothing untoward with the results, but made several recommendations, including the number of choices children have in selecting schools.