Brown’s Hall Primary Student Achieves Despite Challenges

Despite challenges with Internet connectivity and having only a few months to prepare for this year’s Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examinations, Brandon Francis scored big and is heading to his institution of choice, St. Catherine High School.

The Brown’s Hall Primary School student, who hails from the rural community in St. Catherine, was awarded Runner-Up Champion Boy and given a trophy for being the most disciplined student in his class.

He tells JIS News that while both awards have left him feeling “great”, the one for discipline is special. “I don’t give any trouble in the class, and I listen to my teacher,” Brandon says.

On hearing that the PEP results had been released, Brandon kept checking online for his name and placing and, after several checks, he finally saw what he had studied for – placement at his high school of choice.

“I felt good and happy. I showed it (results) to my mother, and she jumped and rejoiced, and showed it to the neighbours,” Brandon says.

A gift of $10,000 was also given to him from a donation to the school by former Principal, Derrick Warmington.

The student’s mother, Shanna-Kay Richards, says Brandon does his best in school, adding that the day he found the PEP results on the Internet and started smiling, she knew that his dream had come true.

There was “uproar and excitement” in the home, as her only child would be getting a great start to his secondary education, she tells JIS News.

“I am thanking God for his awards. He studied during the days and would wake in the nights and study also. I did not pressure him with the studies; I allowed him to have his fun as well,” Ms. Richards says.

She notes that connectivity for online classes was “terrible”, and it was difficult to purchase data.

Consequently, Ms. Richards is thankful that a good neighbour helped with Internet access.

For Brown’s Hall Primary Vice Principal, Stacy Nelson, Brandon was “consistent and focussed, and did very good work.”

She adds that the awards should serve to motivate him “to work harder to obtain other awards; and I encourage him to continue to be consistent in his work.”

Eighty-seven per cent of students who sat the PEP examinations have been placed in a school of their choice.

The remaining 13 per cent have been placed at institutions near their primary school or home address.

Females outperformed males in all subjects. Of the 36,078 students registered, 18,495 were boys and 17,583 were girls.

In Language Arts, 86 per cent of girls received scores in the highly proficient or proficient categories, while boys are at 68.5 per cent.

In Mathematics, 56.6 per cent of girls were deemed highly proficient or proficient, while only 45.2 per cent of boys were so assessed.

The main objective of PEP is to enhance the academic and critical thinking capabilities and creativity of students by the end of primary level education. It commences with a series of assessments at Grade 4 and ends in Grade 6.

The three main categories are the Performance Task, Ability Test, and Curriculum Test.