PEP to place students on suitable learning pathway - officials
Published:Monday | June 25, 2018 | 12:00 AMBrian Walker/Staff Reporter
The Primary Exit Profile (PEP) will equip educators with data on students, especially slow learners, to better facilitate their transition into the high-school system, according to officials from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information.
Children will be placed on one of three pathways designed to meet their level of competence. Pathway one is for students who are performing satisfactorily, the second pathway is for children who have some form of delayed learning, and the third is for students with special needs.
"They will be placed on a particular pathway based on the scores that they would have received in the subject areas," explained Terry-Ann Thomas Gayle, manager of the Student Assessment Unit at the education ministry.
"On these pathways, the programmes at the secondary level will be customised to cater to them (students) at the different levels at which they are leaving the primary schools and entering the high schools," Gayle told disclosed during a Gleaner Editors' Forum yesterday.
Dr Grace McLean, chief education officer, added that teachers would have to analyse the performances of students starting from grade four. At that point, children would have to do their first performance task, which is a project that allows them to apply skills learned to real-world scenarios.
She added, "With that projection, we are now able to put the intervention in place to allow them to transition from pathway two to pathway one or for us to identify the special needs and to treat with [them] and to modify the curriculum to treat with those on pathway three."