Face-To-Face Classes Resume Monday For Students Sitting Exams

Cabinet has given approval for the resumption of face-to-face instruction as of Monday, May 10 for those students sitting exit examinations.

This includes students doing the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) Ability Test, the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination, the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE), City & Guilds and the National Vocational Qualification – Jamaica (NVQ-J).

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, made the announcement during the sitting of the House of Representatives on May 4.

“We want to emphasise that the COVID-19 infection-prevention and control protocols will be established, enforced and strictly adhered to at the schools. Provisions have been made through the regional offices for disbursement of grants for basic equipment and materials needed for sanitisation purpose,” he said.

Mr. Holness noted that a whole-day/rotation approach, based on resources available, will facilitate the inclusion of face-to-face engagement for students sitting the 2021 exit examinations.

“This means that only a subset of each cohort of students will be at school each day while others work remotely,” he noted.

The Prime Minister said, further, that systems are in place for the teachers involved in face-to-face instruction to be vaccinated as part of the infection, prevention and control measures.

So far, 7,500 teachers have already been vaccinated and plans are in place for others to be inoculated commencing May 6.

Mr. Holness said the Ministry of Health and Wellness will work to ensure that the schools that are expected to be reopened “will be inspected thoroughly to ensure that they have the protocols in place and that they are maintaining them when the children are in attendance”.

He made it clear that “except for students sitting exit examinations, there should be no other face-to-face instruction in our public or independent schools. Students are instructed to use the other modalities which are in place”.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister told the House that an extension of the deadline for School-based Assessments (SBAs) was granted by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), noting that students will be allowed to submit them by June 30, without penalty.

The move follows intervention from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, which wrote to the CXC requesting the extension.

Mr. Holness said that due to the pandemic, a significant number of the current exam cohort has lost approximately one year of in-person instruction and guidance.

He noted that the SBAs would normally be more than 90 per cent complete in the month of March. However, based on a readiness survey conducted on April 8, only 15 per cent of CSEC schools and 26 per cent of CAPE schools had more than 70 per cent of SBAs completed.

Based on the registration data, approximately 39,000 students are registered to do the PEP Ability Test for grade six, which is scheduled for May 26, and 13,951 students in public schools and 101 private candidates are registered to do CAPE.

Some 445,174 students in public schools and 1,162 private candidates are registered to sit CSEC. These exams are scheduled for June 14 to July 16 with orals and practicals scheduled to commence June 1.

In addition, 24,000 students are registered for City and Guilds exams scheduled for August 10 to 1, and 16,000 students are registered to sit NCTVET exams scheduled for June 7 to 11.