Dear Editor,
Why are our children of Grades Two and Four being burdened with assessments? It is my understanding that these assessments are being used as prerequisites along with the grand finale the National Grade Six Assessment for placement at schools. Come on, Mr Minister, in all fairness how can we assess a child who is in grades two or four by these assessments, and use these grades or percentages after a tabulation of the three to determine which school a child attends? Not all children are academically inclined at that age; some may very well be late achievers. Is this the strategy the ministry came up with to penalize that child? If this is the strategy the ministry has settled on and sees it as a format for the evaluation of a child’s academic progress, then this format should be implemented at the secondary level so as to prepare the older children for their CSEC examination. I think it’s absurd to place so much burden on these little ones; let them grow and develop at their own pace, so every one of them would have a level playing field at the Grade Six Assessment, rather than being judged prior to that.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Mars
