Stop prestige system

A HIGH Court judge, though proud of his daughter’s passing for the prestigious Naparima Girls’ High School, yesterday publicly condemned the annual pressure placed on thousands of children to pass for so-called prestige schools.

“Our children should not have to compete for a school spot,” Justice Frank Seepersad told reporters outside Renaissance Preparatory School in San Fernando, adding that the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examination should be revised.

The judge said he longs for the day when children would not believe that they have “failed” in the eyes of society because they have not passed for their first choice of a prestige school.

Seepersad’s daughter Amanda, 11, passed for her first choice and will attend Naparima Girls’ High School. With his wife, Camille, he accompanied their daughter to the school on the corner of Gordon and Lewis Streets yesterday morning to collect her SEA result. When they emerged, members of the media congratulated the judge on his daughter’s success and asked him for a general comment on his experience as the parent of a primary school child.

“Having gone through this experience as a parent, I am resolute in my view that this examination should be urgently revised.

“Whilst I’m thrilled that my daughter will attend Naparima Girls ‘ (considered to be one of the most prestigious girls school in the country), there are approximately 1,000 prestige-school places,” Seepersad said.

The judge said the continued propagation of the concept of prestige school sends a message each year to many of the approximately 18,000 SEA students that they have effectively “failed” in this, the first major scholastic exam of their young lives if they do not pass for their first choice.

Seepersad, who is known for his outspokenness on national issues through his judgements in the High Court, called on the powers that be to remember the tears of sadness of some primary school children on getting their SEA results, “and their feeling of hopelessness.”

“That should serve as the catalyst to reform the (education) system, taking a cue from the recent comments from a Singapore minister, that education is not a competition.”

“Our children should not have to compete for a secondary school spot.

“They have been drilled into the art of mastering the art of certification and not getting a holistic education which equips them to meet the demands of a fast-evolving, technology-defined world, nor are we instilling in them a sense of citizenship.”

San Fernando attorney Anand Misir, though his daughter also passed for Naparima Girls’, shared Seepersad’s view.

“The results are indicative of an exam in which the ministry (of Education) has to be saddled with how to deal with children’s reaction to their results, which is an acknowledgment of the failure to properly implement a change.”