JIS: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, says a new website to assist teachers, parents and students in preparation for the Primary Exit Profile (PEP), will be launched by the end of the week.
He was speaking at a Teacher Sensitisation and Consultation Session for PEP at the Old Harbour New Testament Church in Clarendon on Tuesday (October 2).
“By the end of this week, we’ll have, fully running, a dedicated PEP website with everything you need to know about PEP; practice items – all the materials… will be available for you 24/7,” Minister Reid informed.
“Two weeks’ time, after Friday, we hope to have an app that you can just click on and all that information will be available. We have to transition into the 21st century… . We will have the technology-aided teaching and learning material,” he added.
Minister Reid noted that printed material will also be circulated. “We’ve had to pull out all the stops [for] those of you who were not comfortable with some of the material online… [and] we have agreed to print the material for you,” he said.
The Education Minister reiterated that the content for PEP has not changed from the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT); the “enrichment, the methodology in terms of how we deliver the content, however, would have changed with the National Standard Curriculum (NSC)”.
“We are seeking to draw out of the students those high-order skills; not just get them stuck at recall but moving up the ladder from comprehension, analysis, moving right up to synthesis and evaluation,” he pointed out.
PEP has replaced GSAT as the national secondary-school entrance examination. It is intended to provide a better and more complete profile of students’ academic and critical-thinking capabilities at the end of primary-level education.
It comprises a Performance Task, Ability Task and a Curriculum-Based Task.
CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid (second left), fields questions during a Teacher Sensitisation and Consultation Session on Tuesday (October 2) at Old Harbour New Testament Church in St. Catherine. He is flanked by (from left) Chief Education Officer, Dr. Grace McLean; Acting Deputy Chief Education Officer, Dasmine Kennedy; and Assistant Chief Education Officer, Core Curriculum Unit, Winnie Berry.