A question in this year’s Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) on how an old and worn Jamaican flag should be treated has triggered widespread debate after it emerged that two conflicting answers were taught to children who sat the exam.

The controversy started swirling last week when parents expressed concern about the differences in the answers to the social studies question.

The

Grade Six Revision Topics and Achievement Tests for Jamaica advises students that the Jamaican flag “should not touch the ground, be used for decoration or burnt. If a flag gets old and worn it should be buried”.

However, some GSAT students reported that they were taught that an old and worn flag should be burnt.

The latter advice was confirmed as correct by Jamaica’s foremost protocol expert Merrick Needham.

“An irrevocably damaged Jamaican National Flag should be destroyed by burning it in a private location, not in public, and in a dignified manner,” Needham said when the

Jamaica Observer consulted him yesterday. “Two suggested suitable methods are by suspending the flag or else folding and placing it on a clean surface – then ensuring that it is burnt completely.”

Similar advice is posted on the

Jamaica Information Service (JIS) website. “When the flag becomes worn and must be replaced, it should be burnt privately and not used for any other purpose than that, for which it was designated,” theJIS states under the ‘Code for use of the Jamaican flag’.

The code also states:

* The Jamaican flag should never be allowed to touch the ground or floor. It should not be flown or used only for decorative purposes on anything that is for temporary use and is likely to be discarded, except on state occasions.

* The flag should never be smaller than any other flag flown at the same time.

* Do not place any other flag above or to the right of the Jamaican flag, except at foreign embassies, consulates and missions. (As seen from, say, a building looking outwards, ie, the left when facing the building.)

* Do not raise any foreign flag publicly, unless the Jamaican flag is also flown, except at foreign embassies, consulates and missions.

* The flag shouldn’t be draped over vehicles, except on military, police and state occasions.