Garcia: Extra year, Servol for SEA under 30 scorers

THE MORE than 2,500 students that scored below 30 per cent in the 2018 Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exam will receive an additional year, be placed in Servol or benefit from an adapted curriculum, says Education Minister Anthony Garcia.

He was responding to a question in the Senate yesterday.

Garcia said 2,597 students scored under 30 per cent, 932 who were under 13 years old would benefit from an additional year in primary school and were required to resit the exam in 2019. He said these students have been identified and specific support would be provided in literacy and numeracy.

He said the remaining 1,665 students have been placed in Servol Junior Life Centres and government secondary schools where an adapted Form One curriculum would be implemented with a focus on numeracy, literacy, visual and performing arts and technology education. He added that support for teachers and students would also be provided by school supervisors, student support services and the curriculum officers through training of teachers in diagnostic and remediation strategies.

Opposition Senator Wade Mark asked if a socio-economic analysis would be done on the students but Garcia said that question was a bit premature and the officers of the Student Support Services division would do the necessary analyses.

Mark then asked if the ministry had begun to think of putting the necessary systems in place to avoid a recurrence of the situation.

Garcia responded: “At long last Senator Mark is asking a question that makes sense.”

He spoke of initiatives in education including monitoring system, having experts in education teaching teachers and parenting in education.