Director of the Education Reform Unit, Dr Idamay Denny, is again pushing the idea of a lower first form in some secondary schools at the beginning of the Michaelmas term beginning on September 20.
“One of the plans we were putting to the secondary principals is they might have to institute lower first forms in order to deal with some of the deficits the children came to them experiencing,” she said.
Denny was speaking yesterday during a virtual press conference at Ilaro Court to announce the results of this year’s Barbados Secondary Schools’ Entrance Examination.
In June, general secretary of the Barbados Union of Teachers, Herbert Gittens, agreed with the suggestion while speaking about space issues in some primary schools with the anticipated high number of deferrals heading into the exam which was done on July 28.
It was also supported by president of the Association of Public Primary Schools Principals, Dr Hyacinth Harris, and retired educator and head of Mar-Ron’s Academy of Excellence, Margaret Thompson.
“We’re not saying all secondary schools should do this, but when they get the list of children who have been assigned to them in the coming days, they need to look at both the item analysis and the content analysis, and the performance of the students assigned to them, and make decisions based on whether they would need to institute lower firsts,” Denny said.
“There are some who would definitely have to do it, there are some who would get by without doing it, but we are fully in support of it.” (RA)
