P.S.E. students write about adult content
Six thousand eight hundred and fifty-six candidates registered to sit the Primary School Examinations on March twentieth which will determine their placement in the different high schools. And while the grades they obtain are one thing, there is another story that is emerging from the P.S.E. tests. It has to do with the state of the minds of the young ones. Jose Sanchez was at the U.B. Belize City Campus today where he found teachers grading the exams.
Jose Sanchez, Reporting
Paper one of the 2009 sitting of the Primary School Examination is being checked at the District Education Center in West Landivar. Sixty teachers along with ten supervisors and ten table leaders have been spending their Easter break checking over six thousand examination papers.
Yvonne Davis, Principal Education Officer
“Well, as you are well aware we are marking the day one scripts from the English Language Paper two; the composition paper and the letter writing paper. Today we’re doing the letter writing paper. We started last week Monday to Thursday with the composition paper. This week we are doing the letter writing paper. We have a cross section of teacher from the country; we have teachers from up north, Corozal, Orange Walk and we have teachers from the central part; the west and as well Toledo and Stann Creek district.”
Jose Chan, Principal, Corozal Church of Christ Primary School
“I took the initiative when I heard about the marking and I was invited and even though it’s my Easter holiday, I didn’t hesitate to give up my holiday because at the longer run it will benefit my school whereby I have the opportunity to view different scripts, the quality of writing, what is consider to poor, what is considered to be adequate, proficient, excellent and more over we have a marking scheme which serves as a guide and I got back to my school and I help my standard six teacher.”
Emilio Pott, Table Supervisor
“The scripts are seen by the table itself and when the first making is done it is changed to another table so both tables would see the scripts twice. The table leader will also see them, the table leaders will also see them, two table leaders will also see them twice and the supervisor will see them once. So we have about five persons seeing the scripts before they are finally marked. I think this year we are having a little improvement in the adequate and the proficiency as well as the excellent papers. We are seeing less of the inadequate paper so I think we are really having little improvements as the years go by.”
Though the checking of the exam is routine, the content wasn’t. Students were to write one essay from a choice of four topics. Most students wrote about the theme “Never Again” or about a picture topic depicting an adult and child sitting at a table. These students connected these two topics with sexual intimacy or violent behavior.
Araceli Young, Table Leader
“What we have noticed last week with the scripts for creative writing and essay writing, we noticed that a lot of kids actually portray what is their real life. Like domestic violence, they had a lot of sexual connotations, which we need to be alert especially teachers and I think that they’re just spilling out what they really feel and what they really want us to look at. It’s like a bell for us to show that they want us to be more than teachers, but to actually look at them at one to one, you know as a child not just a student. So I would think that if we would try not to worry about the academics only, but also to look at them as an individual then I think we’ll get more from them.”
Anita Tzib, Table Supervisor
“There has been some improvement both in the script and also in the manuscript itself, it’s more legible now compared to other years and we must commend the teachers out there, especially the standard six teachers because they are addressing this apparently because we can see it in the scripts. Children are writing more Standard English now.”
Jose Sanchez
“You as an experienced teacher, earlier in your career did you see this sort of writing that you are seeing now or the extent of it?”
Anita Tzib, Table Supervisor
“No. It’s really getting wider—at a wider scope. Maybe first children were kinda shy to talk about sex or talk about other issues but now they are openly—it’s more prevalent now.”
The evidence is clear that primary school students learn not only in class but also from the communities which they live. Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez.
The sitting for Paper two of the Primary School Exam is scheduled for Monday May fourth.