Stop publication of SEA results in newspapers

THE EDITOR: I implore the Ministry of Education, in particular the chief education officer, to discontinue the distribution of the results of the Secondary Entrance Assessment Examination to the daily newspapers for nationwide publication.
I am asking the ministry to be consistent in its practices and, as such, just as it ended the tradition of calling out the results in front of the entire school population (students, teachers, parents, ancillary staff and security officers), the current practice of publishing the results in the newspapers be terminated.
What obtains now...
* Is in conflict with the process of schools whereby results are presented privately, in envelopes, to students.
* Is in conflict with the ministry’s practice with other examination results such as CSEC, UWI, CXC, CAPE, which are not published.
* Is a breach of privacy of students and parents.
* Has a negative psychosocial effect on these young children.
* Adds unnecessary additional stress on children in an already stressful experience.
These reasons for ending the current practice are further supported by the views expressed by Dr Dianne Douglas, director of Douglas and Associates Ltd, on the TV6 Morning Edition of July 2018. Douglas is a Doctor of Psychology specialising in clinical and community development.
There is also an online petition with over 500 signatures as of September 11, 2018, supporting the request to have the publication of the results in the newspapers terminated.

SALISHA GOMES
ANDREWS
via e-mail