Children, parents, glad to receive SEA results

There was an air of anti-climax around some schools in Port of Spain on Friday as students and parents gathered to collect the paper copies of their SEA results. While most said they had accessed their results through the Education Ministry’s online portal, some chose to collect and reveal their results at their schools to preserve the excitement of the moment.

At Moulton Hall Methodist School, parents lined up to receive their children’s packages. The children waited in a classroom with their classmates, signing shirts and enjoying their last moments together.

Jordan Boyce said he passed for Fatima College, his first choice, and he was looking forward to starting school in September. Mother Kristeann said she was a proud parent.

“We couldn’t ask for anything better. We’re taking him for lunch, though we’re keeping it a surprise.”

She said the results were issued through the Ministry’s portal at midnight and so the children knew their results.

At Maria Regina Grade School, head boy Luke Ferreira collected his results with many of his family members.

“I’m happy that I passed for Fatima, it was my first choice. It was scary at first coming to collect the result because even though I thought I wasn’t going to pass, it was kinda nerves for if I would pass for my second choice. I’m looking forward to going to school in September and today I’m going to a party.”

Ferreira’s mother Sabrina Borde-Ferreira said the process of preparation was challenging for the children as it was mostly done online, but the school had done a good job at preparing the children.

“He’s head boy of the school and that comes with an additional responsibility of representing his school, but we tried not to make him feel pressured. We kept it real calm and said go in and do your best, whatever your best is, we are proud.

“He didn’t want to check his results online, part of the euphoria is being able to open the envelope, and he opened it right out here and the teachers came to watch because they knew he hadn’t checked. I told him for the rest of your life you will remember how you felt when you opened that envelope.”

Parents at St Ursula’s Anglican School said their children had opted to receive their results at school, even though the parents had looked up the results online beforehand. The results however were not released until approximately 12.15 pm, prompting complaints by parents.

Gale Huggins, whose niece attends the school, questioned why the results were being held.

“We’ve been out here for the last two hours-plus, waiting for the results to be released. As far as we understand, results have been released at every other school since 8 or 9 am, except this one. It is almost 12 pm, what is the problem? At least come out and communicate with the parents.

“People have to go and look for their little loan, registration starts on Monday, so what are parents to do? One of the class WhatsApp groups did say the results wouldn’t be released until noon but they didn’t tell us early this morning, people were already here before we were informed.”

The normal buzz of celebrations was also absent at some of the establishments which would normally be flooded with children on results day in previous years.

At TGI Fridays in Port of Spain, which offered a free milkshake with the presentation of an SEA slip, there were two or three large groups of children and their families, with the same amount of smaller groups scattered around the restaurant.

MovieTowne Port of Spain was also mostly devoid of children. Two or three groups of four to ten children from St Agnes Anglican Primary School were present. One of the parents chaperoning the group said they’d brought the group out to celebrate.

“They are ecstatic. Some got their first choice, some their second, some their third, and so they’re all happy that they passed.”

Stacian Wilson said “It feels really good to be over. I was glad to get into the school I passed for because it was my first choice”, while Tahira Phillip said she felt great about getting her results and planned to relax for the rest of the summer. Other children said they planned to play video games, read, relax, and enjoy the summer before heading to high school.