Pt Fortin SEA students glad it's finally over

POINT Fortin primary school students were ready to finally get the SEA exam out of the way on Thursday morning, but many of their parents said the children found online learning challenging.

Owing to covid19, parents had to quickly drop off their children and not linger around.

Antonia Cornwall, 12, of the Guapo Government Primary School arrived after 7 am and hugged her mother Maria Sanchez before entering the compound.

Sanchez said her daughter had been saying for weeks that she was ready.

“But last night she broke down,” she said. “She couldn’t sleep.

“She sleeps in her own bed, but last night she said ‘Mummy, I could come and lie down with you?’ I said come. But when she got up this morning, she got up with a difference and I said, ‘I hope you go inside there today with this joy I’m seeing on your face.’”

She said the teacher, Miss Fabian, “went all out” for the students, but at times online learning was a bit tough.

“Sometimes she would say, ‘Mummy I feeling so sick,’ like she want to throw up after spending so much time behind a screen.”

Sanchez said she prayed with Antonia before they went to the school.

Just before 8 am, a number of students began arriving at the Point Fortin ASJA Primary School.

The students had their temperature checked with a thermal scanner and had to wash their hands before entering the building.

Kathy Ali dropped off her son Micah Ali and gave him some final comforting words before he exited the car.

She too said online learning was challenging for her son.

“Having to focus on a screen to do your work – not having a teacher right in front of him was also a challenge. He would get bored easily…”

She said he was a bit nervous still but she knew he would do his best.

“Whatever he does, I know I will be satisfied.”

A guardian of 13-year-old ASJA student Ronaldo Lopez, who preferred not to be named, said the student had been crying a lot and he hopes all goes well.

At the Point Fortin AC and RC schools, it seemed all students were already in by 8 am.

But at the Point Fortin Seventh Day Adventist Primary School, scores of children were just arriving after 8 am.

One father, Anthony Hernandez, prayed with his 13-year-old daughter Antonya across the road from the school before sending her off. She was tearing up and he wiped her tears.

He told Newsday that Antonya was “a little nervous” but the prayer helped her.

“I did the fatherly thing which was to come and make sure everything was (as it should be).

He said she prefers face-to-face learning as opposed to online learning.

“I prayed for her to come out and do something positive, something good, for her to be able to concentrate and do her best.”

Standard 5 teacher Claire Aguillera was outside the gate ensuring the student-arrival process went smoothly.

She told Newsday she was already proud of all of her students, adding that a lot of them grew since she last saw them in person.

Lenardo Renalis’s sister Aaliyah, who walked him to the front gate, said: “Remember what I told you,” and he nodded.

She told Newsday, “(At home) I told him make sure he looks over the paper carefully, look at the easier questions, the questions that worth more marks…”

She said she knows he will do his best.

By midday, scores of parents were already outside the schools as the exam was set to end at 12:30.

Most students seemed tired and just wanted to get home.

A group of five girls told Newsday they all found the exam to be generally good.

All of them also said they were going straight to sleep when they got home.

Asked if they enjoyed online learning, they said for them, it was “not bad.”

One girl said, “But you know that in physical school you getting to interact with your friends, you getting to talk and stuff like that.”

Kalifah Thompson told Newsday, “It was good…it’s just (that) one or two questions were hard but you still had to try.”

She said she was relieved it was finally over.

But as for online learning: “It was hard,” she said.

“But my parents helped me and I did my best today.”

Her father, Daniel Thompson, said as a parent, the switch to online learning for his child was a bit challenging.

“Given the situation that’s happening, you know, it’s a pandemic…a lot of people not employed. Me too not being employed – I was a former Petrotrin employee…It was kind of tough.

“The beginning, when we started, the device went bad and we had to fight here and there to get another device to keep the online learning going. But God is good.”

Kalifah said when she arrives home, she will play basketball and watch TV.

Elizabeth Nelson of the Seventh-Day Adventist Primary School said the exam “wasn’t bad,” but “the maths was a little hard but granny told me to have a little faith and believe that God could help me.”

She said she felt excited to get her results.

Her grandfather, Felix Nelson, said he did not put any pressure on his granddaughter at all.

“I told her whatever she do, I okay with it because I will love her no matter what.”

Elizabeth said, “When I get home, I will hug my brothers and sisters, give them a big kiss and just go and take a rest.”