No panic over PEP

WESTERN BUREAU:

Despite still feeling the impact of Hurricane Melissa, which devastated Jamaica last October, the 2026 sitting of the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examinations started smoothly across western Jamaica yesterday, with students, parents, and teachers expressing confidence and relief.

Dominic Robinson, the 12-year-old head boy at Chetwood Memorial Primary School in St James, told The Gleaner that he felt confident about his chances of passing, despite feeling nervous about the examinations hours earlier.

“I was anxious and nervous going into the exam, because I just felt as if it would be a new test and that I would be discovering new things. I thought that there would be new questions that were never brought up in past papers,” he said.

“When I got to school, what was going through my mind was that I had to do my best if I wanted to go to one of my top three choices of high school. But now I feel very confident because, in going through the paper, I saw things that I have reviewed before,” he added.

Garvin Atkinson, the principal of Chetwood Primary, said that despite physical damage to the school from the Category 5 hurricane, measures were put in place to ensure that the students scheduled to sit the PEP examinations would be psychologically ready.

“We were able to engage the students near the end of October, after the hurricane, so that learning loss was not severely impacting us. The teachers worked very hard, so I think that the students were prepared for the exams, and we are expecting good results,” said Atkinson. “We also had strong support from external stakeholders, including persons who came in and offered psychosocial support through counselling.”

Theresa Cherian, the principal of the neighbouring Mt Alvernia Preparatory School, said that her students gave positive reviews of the PEP examination after sitting it, an outcome she believes was enhanced by their summer school preparations last year.

“We have our summer school every July, where we cover a good portion of the grade-six work. So, when the Ministry of Education revised its curriculum, our teachers said that they were not worried because they had started the work early in July last year,” said Cherian. “After the Easter period, I noticed that the children all seemed to have become more serious, and they have been stepping up very nicely. We hope for the best, and we pray that our efforts will be blessed.”

Meanwhile, J’hayden Powell, an 11-year-old student of Hague Primary and Infant School in Trelawny, said he was not intimidated by Wednesday’s PEP sitting.

“The exam felt easy, and I felt calm. The mathematics never felt like real mathematics, though. I think I am ready for tomorrow (Thursday), because it will be the social studies and science papers,” he said.

Powell’s mother, Anntenniel McLean, admitted to feeling nervous about her son’s chances in Wednesday’s sitting.

“I was anxious, nervous, and I wanted to leave work and go stand outside J’hayden’s school gate. I wanted to hear from him, to hear how he did. Eventually, he called me and I felt I could get a breath of fresh air, and his teacher said all the students came back to say it was manageable,” said McLean.

In January, the Ministry of Education announced that there would be adjustments to the PEP examinations, with students at the grade-six level doing ability tests, 40 multiple-choice questions for the mathematics curriculum-based test, and 60 multiple-choice questions in the language arts curriculum-based test. Grade-six students will continue their examinations today after yesterday’s first day.

In addition, students at the grade-five level will sit the examinations on June 10, doing the mathematics and language arts performance task, which will comprise four to six open-ended questions each. Students at the grade-four level will do the literacy and numeracy test, comprising 30 multiple-choice questions, on June 24.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com