Special-needs children will not be at a disadvantage during PEP
Published:Thursday | October 11, 2018 | 12:00 AMNadine Wilson-Harris/ Gleaner Writer
Students with learning disabilities have been assured that special consideration will be given to those who will be sitting the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) next year.
The assurance was given yesterday by Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information Floyd Green during the Mico University College Child Assessment and Research in Education (CARE) Centre's 7th Biennial Education Conference at the Jamaica Conference Centre downtown Kingston.
"Our children with intellectual disabilities will not be dis-advantaged in relation to our PEP," he said.
"I want to say, especially in relation to our children with intellectual disabilities, as we have done with GSAT, as we have done with our other exams, we are now very close to ensuring that the exams are so tailored to cater to our children that are identified with special needs," he stated.
The PEP will replace the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) as the national secondary school replacement test. The PEP involves a series of assessments that will start from grade four and end in grade six and is expected to enhance the academic and critical-thinking capabilities of students at the primary level.
"We already have systems that we give our exams in Braille for our children who cannot see; that our children who have difficulties in relation to speech, we have persons that we provide to work with them for the exam; for those who can't speak English, you should know that we provide translators, and things of that nature," Green said.
The Performance Task aspect of the PEP was initially scheduled for December, but following concerns from various stakeholders, this has been pushed back to March 2019. The Ability Test and Curriculum-Based Test components will be conducted in February 2019 and April 2019, respectively, as was previously scheduled.
The (CARE) Centre Biennial Conference began yesterday and will continue today at the Jamaica Conference Centre under the theme 'Diversity in Education - Raising the Bar. Innovate. Motivate. Differentiate'.