Pinehaven Primary parents wish their children good luck in SEA

Two parents who spoke briefly to Newsday on Thursday before their children sat the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exams said while they were anxious for it to be over, their children were ready for the test.

One parent simply said with a smile, “We’re good. We’re calm,” she said as she drove away ftrom the Pinehaven SDA Primary School in D’Abadie after dropping her son at 8 am.

Another parent said she had mixed emotions about SEA this year.

Requesting anonymity, the mother said, “Seeing that students were home for most of standard four and then for the greater part of standard five, I had mixed emotions, because some of the learning that would have helped, they missed because they were home. The tangible learning, they missed that.”

She said her son would have lost out because of distractions due to being at home.

“I am anxious for it to be over, but nervous because of that missing element.

"It’s up to God now. Whatever got in, I pray all of them apply it and they can communicate what they have learned and do well. I pray that for him and his classmates.”

She also talked about the full reopening of schools on April 19.

On Monday, Minister of Education Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly announced students at every level will go back into physical classrooms in the third term of the school year after two years of online learning.

“At first I was nervous, because the (covid19 case) numbers were (fluctuating). We prayed about it. We as parents can do all that we can, but at the end of the day this is what we have to do.

“God has taken us this far and no one in his class was infected, and we’re grateful for that. (But) for people to go back now, there is still nervous energy.”

Speaking at a press conference at the ministry in Port of Spain on Monday, the director of the Division of Educational Research and Evaluation, Mervyn Sambucharan, said 9,904 boys and 9,294 girls are sitting the exam this year. Of these, 986 candidates will sit in Tobago and the remaining 18,212 will sit in Trinidad.

Last year, primary school students sat the exam on July 1, after it was postponed by nearly a month owing to concerns about the increase in the number of covid19 cases which began in March.