Big day for students as P.S.E. begins

Two weeks without classes due to the teachers’ strike had students, parents, and educators a bit nervous, but day one of the 2005 P.S.E. went off without a hitch this morning, and Jacqueline Woods sampled some early opinion.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
On the first day of the Primary School Examination, six thousand and eighty-three Standard Six students sat the P.S.E.

Jacqueline Woods
?When you came this morning, were you nervous?

Roberto Riverol
?Absolutely no.?

Jacqueline Woods
?Why weren?t you nervous, a lot of children are nervous when they come to sit the P.S.E., why weren?t you nervous?

Roberto Riverol
?Because I knew to my heart that I was prepared for this exam.?

Tanisha Tillett
?I was really nervous, I feel like my heart was coming out of my mouth. I was like, I have to cool down. And my mother came with me and she prayed with me and she told me, ?Tell yourself that I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.? So when I am taking it, I tell myself I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.?

The Ministry of Education hopes that the 2005 P.S.E. results will be just as good as last year?s examination. But the National Examinations? Programme Manager, Yvonne Davis, says they hope to seen an improvement in one subject area.

Yvonne Davis, Programme Mgr., National Examinations
?There was an improvement last year overall in all areas except for the writing composition paper, there was no change there. But this year we expect that although there was some disruption in the school year we still expect that they will maintain the national performance, or to some extent increase it. We would like to see an increase.?

The students say they expect no less because they are prepared.

Ronel Moralez
?We just stay up late sometimes study and thing, take up each other after that. And we think we ready and just gone to sleep early last night. And when we wake up we say we ready for it.?

Jacqueline Woods
?Were you ready??

Ronel Moralez
?Yes Miss, I sure I ready. I think I wah pass too.?

Kishana Lacroix
?Well we spent like a weekend trying to work and learn some new stuff about science.?

Jacqueline Woods
?You?re sitting of course the first part of the P.S.E., how are things going for you??

Kishana Lacroix
?Well it has been fun for now. I don?t know about the maths, but with the grace of God I will pass it.?

Arnold Cisenros
?We studied a lot, concentrating on our studies.?

Roberto Riverol
?We had Easter classes, we also had Saturday classes, and we had extra times like morning class and evening class.?

Yvonne Davis
?The P.S.E. scores are not aggregated, meaning that we don?t add them up and decide on a pass or fail. There is no pass or fail on the P.S.E. We produce a profile of what the child has done on the exam so that each exam carries its own weight. I know that some schools and even some parents have been adding up the grades, coming up with an aggregated score and decide whether their children pass or fail. Some schools have set their pass mark at fifty percent, other at sixty and so on. The secondary schools I know have their own criteria. They decide which scores are more important to them and from which group they will select the students in terms of the performance.?

The second day of the P.S.E. takes place on May Eleventh. Jacqueline Woods for News Five.

The Ministry of Education says it also has a grade scale for the exam. A is awarded to any student who scores eighty percent and above. Students who score between seventy and seventy-nine percent earn a B; sixty to sixty-nine percent rates a C; fifty to fifty-nine, a D; while students who score forty-nine percent and lower receive an E.