Editor: I am soon to enter Grade 6 of the C.W. Prescod Primary School. One day, the senior Grade 6 teacher came into the class with some letters, telling us what the Ministry is going to do about the Common Entrance Exams.

After she passed them around to us, we first got permission to read them. We spotted three shocking notices that made everyone go crazy. {{more}}

That:

l (1) on the 2005 Common Entrance Exam slips, they will no longer put positions on them;

l (2) the 2005 Common Entrance will be the last;

l (3) parents will be writing down the schools they want their children to attend, but if you do not qualify for the schools they want you to attend, the Government will place them in a school and no further changes can be made to that school no matter your circumstances.

I think all these notices are ridiculous and inconsiderate to the students and their parents, because I know that when I, my fellow students and their parents see these Common Entrance Exam slips, we want to see positions. I know when we take home our Common Entrance Exam slips to our parents they want to know our positions so they can brag and boast and feel happy because their children came at such and such.

The Ministry wrote that when your child does not qualify for one of the schools you want him/her to attend, they would place your child in a school and this school cannot be changed. It would be of a permanent stay. What I’m stressing is, what if a child who lives in Kingstown, goes to a primary school in Kingstown, and does not qualify for one of the nearby schools and is placed in maybe a secondary school in Mesopotamia, wouldn’t that be totally inconsiderate?

Finally, after the 2005 Common Entrance Examination, there will be no more. I think that some of the children that were supposed to do Common Entrance after this will feel left out, and think that those students, like myself, who did the exam before were special and better off.

Besides, without the Exam, some children out there will lose interest in their work and stop listening. They might think there is really no reason to study hard or to make a great effort, because they will be placed in a secondary school regardless of grades and therefore can sit back, relax and have fun because there is really nothing to worry about.

I hope if at least one member of the Government reads this, he or she would try to understand what I am trying to explain, co-operate with us, and pass on our thoughts and ideas in order to try and help us.

Kevon Weekes