Common Entrance is over … now on to the next phase
By Regina Selman Moore
Over 3 000 students wrote this year’s Common Entrance Exam this month and come September, the majority of them will likely be heading to secondary schools across the island.
According to Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, 1 680 males and 1 650 females were scheduled to write the Barbados Secondary Schools’ Entrance Examination (BSSEE). Thirteen students made requests for permission to write the BSSEE at an early age, that is at ten years of age and of that number, eleven students (four males and seven females), were granted their request. It will be interesting to see the statistics when the results are released in a few weeks, to see how the males performed in comparison to their female counterparts, given the view that the females are usually ahead of the males at this stage. It will also be interesting to see how those early sitters performed.
Whatever the outcome, it will be a whole new world for these students, who have finally completed the 11-Plus Exam. While the pressure is off now, as they enjoy some rest and relaxation after the exam, the pressure usually builds once again, as it draws close to “results time” and parents and teachers grow anxious to hear which schools the children will likely attend. My hope however is that students will not be made to feel like failures, if they do not get into the school of their choice. Yes, a little disappointment may be warranted, but there are too many instances where parents scold children for not making it to a desired school, when they know full well the children were not performing all along, to achieve the marks required for entry to ‘x’ or ‘y’ school. Too many parents also want to parade the performance of their children for all to see and when the children do not perform as they have expected, they often make derogatory and condemnatory remarks to them. Parents need to understand that they must work with their children from the nursery level through to Class 4 and they must not wait until the last minute, to try to pressure children to perform.
That said, the emphasis now must be on channelling children in the right direction for the next phase. Now is the time to emphasise to children the need to transition well from primary to secondary school and to help them to do so. Have a chat with them about negative influences and peer pressure and show and encourage them to avoid the very appearance of evil, when they enter secondary school. From what many of us are witnessing on social media, things are fast changing at the level of the schools and it is no picnic or walk in the park, when you now enter these secondary level educational institutions, to continue the next phase of your schooling.
Nevertheless, teachers and parents must encourage students to focus on the positives. Encourage students to develop themselves by getting involved in co-curricular activities that can also help them excel, whether it’s joining the athletics club, the choir, the school’s orchestra, the debating club, the Inter-School Christian Fellowship etc. Encourage them to develop positive friendships with their peers, who are like-minded. Parents need to be onboard throughout the entire secondary school experience as well, not just for the first year, engaging teachers to find out the child’s strength and weaknesses from early, so as to help them flourish. If we want our children to do well in this next phase of their lives, we must engage a hands-on approach and lead by example, for the best outcomes.
I now take this opportunity to wish all those Common Entrance students well, and all the best in their future endeavours.