Mixed views from teachers, parents on August SEA date

Come August 20, some 19,334 students will sit the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exam.

While the exam was scheduled to take place on April 2, the covid19 pandemic delayed it. Schools were closed from March 16 – before the original SEA date of April 2.

The new date set by the Ministry of Education has caused debate. The TT Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA) said the exam should be held in October.

But Education Minister Anthony Garcia said the exam will take place on August 20 nevertheless.

There were mixed feelings among SEA teachers, parents and students about the date. Newsday spoke to some of them on June 14. All asked for their names not to be used.

One Port of Spain standard five teacher said before the covid19 pandemic and stay-at-home order, everyone was in preparation mode for the annual exam. She has been a teacher for the past 29 years and has taught SEA classes for the past 17.

When the pandemic arrived and schools were closed, people were concerned with safety.

But within two weeks of the stay-at-home measures, she said, she set up Google Classroom and used Zoom meetings to communicate with and teach her students.

When TT began reopening, she had hoped that CXC and SEA would be done in July.

She even did a survey in May, asking 20 of her students when they would prefer to do the exam. Eighteen said July.

While she is content with the August 20 date, she also agreed with TTUTA that teachers should not have to teach for an exam during the July/August holiday.

She appreciates TTUTA’s stance from a personal perspective. While she wants to get the exam over, the date leaves little recovery time for standard five teachers.

“Remember, I go back out to teaching in September with a standard four class for two years of this intense preparation for SEA. The two-year period that we take to prepare these children for SEA is very intense.”

But she also understood that many teachers, students and parents simply want to get the exam done.

A teacher from Couva with 28 years’ experience said she prefers to have the exam in August so that everyone can “get it over and done with.”

“In my opinion, SEA is keeping the entire school system from moving forward,” she said.

Many children were already stressed out and exhausted by the middle of March.

Also: “There is a big issue with the teachers and the stipend. Had we started this term, say, like June, perhaps the exam could have been done on July 3 or even July 10. It would have eliminated a lot of the stress that a lot of teachers feel.”

She said some teachers were feeling disheartened about things being said in the media about the stipend offered to teachers to take classes from July 20.

She said an earlier date would have eliminated that embarrassing situation.

There is also added stress for teachers as they will have to start preparing for a new class from August 21, which does not allow a recuperation period.

For her, teaching online was a lot more stressful than working in the classroom, as “you are not seeing your students, you can’t communicate with them, and you don’t know their individual issues.”

A standard five teacher from Arima with 28 years of experience does not like the August 20 date: she feels it is an infringement on her rights, and no one asked what she thought of it.

Having the exam then is going to take a good deal out of the teachers to get the students back to a state of readiness. Teachers have not stopped working since March, she said. Like her colleagues, she believes an earlier date, in July, would have been better.

Parents happy date has been set

Parents were happy to finally have a date for the exam. One mother of an 11-year-old son was simply happy to have a set date again.

“I could see my son’s frustration with the SEA not happening, because he was ready to have it finished,” she said. Her son, who goes to a private school in St Ann’s, has had online classes during the stay-at-home period. He just wants to sit the exam and pass for his first choice of Fatima College.

She is also happy that the children will be back at school for a month before the exam so that teachers “can drill them and ensure they are where they need to be.”

The father of an 11-year-old son at a public school in Belmont said while he understands the metrics of the August date, he believes it is slightly too early: he would choose September.

His son is prepared for the August 20 exam and plans to continue wearing his mask when he returns to school in July.