All set for SEA, say PM, education minister

RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

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Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath have as­sured that all is in place for the smooth con­duct of the Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment (SEA) ex­am­i­na­tions, as thou­sands of stu­dents pre­pare to write the ex­am on Thurs­day.

An es­ti­mat­ed 17,937 stu­dents across Trinidad and To­ba­go are ex­pect­ed to sit the ex­am­i­na­tion at cen­tres na­tion­wide.

In a state­ment, Per­sad-Bisses­sar ex­tend­ed best wish­es to the can­di­dates, en­cour­ag­ing them to re­main calm and con­fi­dent.

“I ex­tend my very best wish­es to each of you for suc­cess, strength, and peace of mind,” she said.

She as­sured that in­struc­tions had been giv­en to en­sure the safe and or­der­ly con­duct of the ex­ams.

“As Prime Min­is­ter, I have is­sued clear in­struc­tions to all rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties to en­sure the smooth and safe con­duct of these ex­am­i­na­tions, and to main­tain or­der, qui­et, and se­cu­ri­ty at all cen­tres so that every child can per­form at their very best,” she added.

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so high­light­ed on­go­ing ini­tia­tives to strength­en the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem, in­clud­ing the pro­vi­sion of free lap­tops to Form One stu­dents and mea­sures to ad­dress bul­ly­ing in schools.

Mean­while, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath said al­so said all arrange­ments are in place for Thurs­day’s ex­am­i­na­tion, de­spite con­cerns raised ear­li­er this week.

On Tues­day, mes­sages cir­cu­lat­ed sug­gest­ing the SEA could be jeop­ar­dised due to out­stand­ing trav­el­ling al­lowances owed to su­per­vi­sors. Sources told Guardian Me­dia that some of­fi­cers have not re­ceived pay­ments for months and ex­pressed frus­tra­tion.

How­ev­er, Dowlath said he was not aware of any planned dis­rup­tion.

“I am not aware of any planned ac­tion to not mon­i­tor the SEA,” he said, adding that de­spite the con­cerns, su­per­vi­sors and cur­ricu­lum of­fi­cers are con­tin­u­ing to car­ry out their du­ties.

It is un­der­stood that school su­per­vi­sors are owed trav­el­ling al­lowances for sev­er­al months, and along with cur­ricu­lum of­fi­cers, have al­so raised con­cerns about out­stand­ing pay­ments, in­clud­ing a five per cent salary in­crease and back­pay for the pe­ri­od 2014 to 2019.

De­spite these is­sues, of­fi­cials say all key per­son­nel re­main com­mit­ted to en­sur­ing the suc­cess­ful ad­min­is­tra­tion of the na­tion­al ex­am­i­na­tion.