News Briefs

No TRN required for students

Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Dr Grace McLean said students should not be prevented from entering classes or sitting exams if they do not have a taxpayer registration number (TRN).

In the past year, TRNs were being requested of students at a St Catherine school and the HEART Trust/NTA, which offers vocational training.

McLean said that while the HEART Trust/NTA requires that students be linked with a TRN, the ministry has indicated to the administration “that there are other ways that unique identification can be utilised for the processing of students for exams”.

“This ministry also sent out a bulletin, which spoke to the fact that children should not be prevented from entering into any classes, for any examinations, if they don’t have a TRN,” McLean said.

Grades four and five PEP results on the horizon

The results of the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) exams sat by grades four and five students across primary and preparatory school in the last school year will be released in the coming term.

The announcement was made by minister with oversight responsibility for the education ministry, Karl Samuda, at a press briefing yesterday.

The results for grade five students, who have now advanced to grade six, will be released on September 13. The results for last year’s grade four students, who are now in grade five, will be accessible on October 4.

Results will be prepared similarly to that of the grade six students’ results released last school year, where scaled scores were presented instead of percentages in a two-page report.

Samuda: Board, not ministry, to handle Edna matters

Minister with oversight responsibility for the education ministry, Karl Samuda, yesterday said he could not provide any clarity on the issues rocking the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts.

The college’s principal, Dr Nicholeen DeGrasse-Johnson, was suspended this week pending a probe into matters affecting the school.

Allegations of a cover-up of sexual harassment cases have been gripping the St Andrew-based fine-arts college.

“It’s a matter that is at a very delicate stage,” Samuda said yesterday. “It is the prerogative of the board to make a determination. They are the ones charged with that responsibility, not the minister, not the ministry. The ministry is overall responsible, but it’s the board that is designated as the competent authority to determine how the institution is run and by whom.”