THERE seems to be no clear end in sight to the dispute surrounding the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examination.

Teachers in some Jamaican primary schools last week lamented that the results of the first PEP Mock Examination, held in June of this year to assess the readiness of students and teachers, were poor, and they expressed pessimism that there will be a successful turnaround in time for the exam to replace the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT).

Last week, following reports that overall results were less than satisfactory, Minister of Education Senator Ruel Reid announced that the performance task component of PEP would be rescheduled from December to March 2019.

The Ministry of Education disclosed the results from the mock exam, revealing that 83 per cent of students met or nearly met the standards for English Language; 48 per cent of students met or nearly met the standards for mathematics, 52 per cent met or nearly met the standards for social studies, and 22 per cent met or nearly met the standards for science.

Some teachers and school administrators are concerned about the “horrendous” results, according to one, and students and teachers were not prepared for what was described by some as a hard exam for primary school students. Given the short time period by which the students were expected to sit the performance task exam in December, teachers explained that based on the results, it would not have been possible to have the students ready by that time.

Grade six coordinator at the Frankfield Primary School, Marcia Smith, explained in further details some of these challenges that she faced in preparing her students.

“I think the time was really short, and the performance task part of it is the most difficult part of the exam to me because of lack of material and it takes time to get into the new curriculum — to get into the content,” Smith said.

“And then for these children, you need a practice test. And the assessment part of it, we are not even sure how to set the questions to give them the practice in the performance task, especially without adequate material,” Smith continued.

Smith also spoke about the difficulty of the exam, explaining that her students performed poorly.

“They did the performance task in language, maths, and science and the results were very poor. They have a lot of writing to do, and to me PEP is a good exam to get them to think critically, but the ministry wasn’t really prepared for the roll-out because we don’t have material.

“We should get books and resources to work with. They have to realise that they are not high school children, they are not doing CXC (Caribbean Examination Council). And when I look at some of the things, they are really difficult, especially the performance task. I looked at the grade five one from last year when they were in grade five, and the performance was difficult and they didn’t do well, especially in the Language. The result was really poor, because they have a lot of writing to do. So I think the performance task that they set for them, it’s really difficult,” Smith concluded.

Tamashella Smith, grades four and six teacher at the Golden Spring Primary School, shared further challenges and findings in her own assessment of her students performance in that mock exam.

“The results were very poor. The exam was not at their level at all. That paper would have been ideal for students in high school. From a measurement perspective, the exam was not pitched for nine- and 10-year-olds. The duration of the exam was too long. The type of items that they had on the exam did not qualify for those students, for the maturity level of the students. It was too much for them. Students who were even able to attempt the paper, they struggled through it. The rubric that they used, what they focused on in the scoring, we had no knowledge of anything. The teachers were not prepared to prepare the students to take that exam. A majority of the teachers did not know what the rubric was at all,” Tamashella Smith stated.

“In order for us to guide the students to prepare them properly, you have to know what is being assessed. We didn’t know what was being assessed. All we knew was that they were to be able to think logically”, she continued.

Smith also explained that at her school the students were prepared based on international performance task items, since teachers had not yet got material from the Ministry of Education to go by. This, she said, further jeopardised her students’ readiness for the mock exam.

“When they told us that we would be doing performance task items, we assumed that it would have taken the format like what other international countries use performance task as. So when we looked at performance task items from other countries and said okay then, these are what performance task items look like then we can prepare our students along that line — when we saw the performance task, we saw samples of the performance task a month before when we were already far advanced in preparing the students one way, only to find that that is not where we should have been. We couldn’t double back and take any kind of corrective measures to properly prepare them for what our performance task looks like,” Smith said.

The grades four and six teacher also explained that the scrapping of an initial project-based component of PEP further thwarted their preparation process.

“The ministry told us the initial component of PEP would be project based, so each grade — four, five and six — would have a project to do like a school-based assessment, so we would have adjusted to accommodate the project, but then it was scrapped. So we were not looking for the performance task to be so detailed. We didn’t know what it would entail, so that is where we would have had most of the challenge”, Smith said.

She also noted some observations about how boys and girls fared differently in the new exam.

“Representatives from a group of about 11 schools met the other day and one of the things we noticed when we analysed the performance task results of grade five students that were released, we realised that the students who did well are the students who were street-smart, the students who were not academically smart. And what we found too was that the boys did better,” Smith said.

“I don’t know that I want to make a generalised statement, but in my school, the boys did extremely better than the girls. And coming out of GSAT, the girls always outperformed the boys in that type of test-taking,” she explained.

Principal of Rousseau Primary School Owen Speid also shed light on some of the challenges that teachers faced in preparing students for the mock performance task exam.

“The only thing I can tell you is that the performance task exam should not just be pushed back but cancelled totally, because from the results that we have seen, the performance task is a troublesome exam. The items are too wordy, too long for the children. The level of difficulty is not for their level,” Speid said.

He also candidly admitted that he does not believe there was a single child who mastered all four subjects of the mock PEP exams

“I don’t think there is one child in Jamaica of the 40,000 who sat the exam, who mastered all four subjects. But the ministry is concealing that report. I have not spoken to a principal or a teacher anywhere in Jamaica — and I have spoken to quite a few people — who have said to me any child at all in their school met the standard in all four subjects,” Speid said.

Speid, who also teaches at Rousseau Primary, questioned the Ministry’s presentation of the results from the mock exam.

“That’s a trick report, because if you gather everybody in nearly met, the 83 per cent could mean 80 per cent nearly met and 33 per cent met, and put all of that together and say 83 per cent met and nearly met. That is a way to make it look better than it really is,” Speid said.

Even with the push back to March of next year, Speid still doubted that teachers or students will be ready for the exam.

“Most teachers who heard the news that it was pushed back from December to March feel a little bit relieved and feel happy for that, but in the main, some are still saying that the performance task section of it should just be taken out completely,” Speid said

“I don’t think we will be ready at all this year. The fact is that it’s just in mid-September we got the hard copies of the curriculum guide. So the ministry giving them out in September, the same school year to do an exam that is a big difference from what used to obtain, it’s a big shift. It (PEP) needed some more time and it still needs some more time,” he continued.

Meanwhile, Kayon Thomas, grade six coordinator at the Old Harbour Primary School in St Catherine, is hopeful that the ministry’s continued support by way of workshops will be enough to help the teachers so that they can better prepare the students come March of next year.

“Initially we were a bit timid because we did not have a clear understanding as to what to do. However, based on the forums and the sessions that the Ministry of Education has been putting on, we are a bit more comfortable because we are understanding it somewhat more,” Thomas said.

“We got some practice papers, and based on the practice papers we are understanding more as to what the performance task section is about. So based on that, we are planning our lessons accordingly. And the minister of education, he was in St Catherine and he gave some information as to what the performance task section would be about. And we have been going to some sessions also, so we’re a bit clearer as to where to go. For March, basically we are trying our best to be prepared. March is just around the corner and based on what we have been learning at these sessions, we are trying our best but, we are not fully there yet. I would say we’re halfway there,” Thomas said.

Tamashella Smith also indicated that although the results were poor, a majority of the students fell in the category of nearly meeting the required standards.

“Now that we have an idea of what it is the students will do better, because one of the things that happened was that most of the children fall in the second band — almost met the standard — and that is not a bad indication. So when they sit the next one it will be better,” Smith said.

In the meantime, Speid cautioned that grade six students have been dealt a bad hand seeing that they will not have a three-year exit profile as indicated by the ministry.

“My take on it is there should not be any PEP, the main reason being the ministry would have been breaching their own policy, because they promised the people of Jamaica, the children and the parents, that they are going to change from a one-shot exam to a three-year profile. This grade six set and the grade five set following will not have a three-year profile, hence you are breaching a promise if they do the PEP this year or next year. In fact, the only set of children right now who could have a three-year will be the set in grade four now. So that’s the set the PEP should have started with. Anything else is unfair and a breach of what they promised,” Speid said.

Tamashella Smith also raised that matter as an issue.

“The challenge we’re having is: how can it be a mock? A mock to what? Because if it is a mock, the grade four students did the mock in May. When will they sit their exam. Because they are no longer in grade four, that mock cannot contribute to anything for them. And that is one of the issues that we have, because they are not calling it what it is. It is a pilot, If they say to us this is a pilot then we would know that they are now going to go and analyse and these grades won’t do anything to any of the children — It won’t impact them in anyway,” Smith said.