Transfer of GSAT Students to be Completed By July 3

Minister of Education, Hon. Rev. Ronald Thwaites, says the request for transfers of students who were recently placed in high schools, based on their performance in the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT), should be completed by Friday, July 3.

“The Principals of High Schools have a five per cent discretion, so they will accommodate some of the transfers on different grounds during the course of this week and it should be all settled by tomorrow,” Rev. Thwaites said.

The Minister was speaking in an interview with JIS News at the Mona Heights Primary School Graduation ceremony, held on July 2 at the Karl Hendrickson Auditorium, at Jamaica College.

In a release from the Ministry in June, there were some 500 requests for transfers of students who were recently placed in high schools based on their performance in the GSAT.

The largest number of transfer requests, 200, came from Region One, which comprises Kingston and St Andrew.

“That’s about 1.3 per cent of the whole cohort, so it’s not a significant number. Many of them have to do with location issues, where they really can’t make the expenditure from where they have been assigned and (we are) putting them closer,” Rev. Thwaites said.

Other reasons include students not getting any of their choices, relocation of parents, and students/parents not being pleased with the placement.

A total of 38,662 students from over 1,000 primary schools sat GSAT, which was administered on March 25 and 26.

Of the number, 33,546 students have been granted places in high school; 3,177 students were placed in technical schools; 836 were placed in primary and junior high schools; while 15 students were placed in special schools.

Additionally, 27,189 or 73 per cent of students were placed in their preferred schools; 9,486 or 25 per cent of students were placed in terms of proximity to the schools they are currently attending, and 899 or two per cent were placed manually in proximity to the address they submitted.