Tuesday, February 19, 2019

THE GLEANER, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2019 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | SPECIAL ADVERTISING FEATURE

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Statement on preparation for the Primary Exit Profile exams Naomi Francis, press secretary, The Office of the Prime Minister. FILE

B EGINNING FEBRUARY 26, 2019, the Ministry of Education Youth and Information (MoEYI) will implement the New National Assessment Programme. Through the implementation of the National Standards Curriculum, the MoEYI, over the last six years, began working on the National Assessment Programme that wouldmeasure the achievement of the National Standards Curriculum. The Primary Exit Profile (PEP) will be admin- istered annually in all primary-level institutions at Grade 4, 5, and 6. For the academic year 2018-2019, the first cohort of students will sit the Grade 6 components starting with the Ability Test as scheduled on February 26, 2019 in 1,104 centres across the island. The tests will be administered to students born 2006, 2007, and 2008. The Ability Test measures students’ability to reason with words and quantities (quantita- tive and verbal reasoning). It represents 30 per cent of students’profile. This test consists of 40 Single Select Multiple Choice items. Students will complete the test in a test booklets (similar in layout as in the practice papers distributed to the system) and not on an answer sheet. DAY OF THE EXAMINATION •Tuesday, February 26, 2019 SPECIAL ACCOMODATION As is customary, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information will provide support for special-needs students. A total of 304 students have submitted psy- cho-evaluation reports, and these have been evaluated by the Special Education Unit. The recommendations that have been made have been communicated to approximately 95 per cent of the students. The remaining reports are being prepared to be sent to the regions for the schools. In the interim, telephone calls are being made to the schools to inform the principals ahead of time. The regions have also been informed of the recommendations pertaining to each student. Special accommodation of a writer will only be

made for the Performance Tasks as this is the only component that the children are required to write, all other components require the stu- dents to shade a response. However, if the writ- ing is affected by a physical disability, a writer will be given to these students. Students will be granted an extra 30 minutes beyond the allotted two hours to complete their Performance Tasks and an extra 20 min- utes for other exams, which will range from one hour and 15 minutes for Abilities Test to one hour and 30 minutes for the Curriculum- Based Tests. PERFORMANCE TASKS IN LANGUAGE ARTS AND MATHEMATICS A performance task is an activity or assess- ment that asks students to solve a problem by demonstrating their knowledge, understand- ing, and proficiency. It is curriculum based and assesses students’ grasp of concepts, princi- ples, and procedures coming from content in language arts and mathematics. The scores for the Performance Tasks for Language Arts and Mathematics will be combined with the scores the students received in the respective Curriculum-Based Tests to give an overall score of the students’achievement of the NSC for the different subjects. Students will sit their Grade 6 Performance Tasks in their classroom under the supervision of their class teachers. DAYS OF THE EXAMINATION • Wednesday, March 27, 2019 – Language Arts Performance Tasks • Thursday, March 28, 2019 – Mathematics Performance Tasks TEACHER ACTIVITY Teachers are required to do an engagement activity with students prior to the start of stu- dents doing their individual performance task. The intent of this engagement activity was to provide equity in the content knowledge that forms the scenario for each task. As such, teachers will receive these Teacher Engagement Activities through training workshop planned

for the first week of March 2019. During the training, teachers will be taken through, among other things. the administra- tive procedure of the Performance Tasks as well as how the Teacher Activity should be used to bridge the gap, if any, that would be present when the students complete their individual tasks. CURRICULUM-BASED TEST The Curriculum-BasedTest in Language Arts, Science, Mathematics, and Social Studies will assess students’ knowledge and procedure at the Grade 6 level. It will be based on the Grade 6 Component for this subject area. PAPERS AND DATES FOR EXAMS • April 16, 2019 – Language Arts and Science. • April 17, 2019 – Mathematics and Social Studies. HOW READY ARE THE TEACHERS? •The teachers are aware of the different com- ponents of the tests. •Active engagement of teachers started in September of this year. They have been actively preparing the students by utilising thematerials provided by the ministry. •Teachers at the Grade 6 level have been trained in Assessing the NSC. •Quality assurance officers have been deployed to all Regions. PEP PROCEDURES TO PREVENT LEAKING OF TEST PAPERS • Unannounced visits to the printing facilities are being conducted. • Examination papers are stored in a vault. • Packaging of examinationmaterials is done in a sterile area under strict supervision. MEDIA HOUSES IN ATTENDANCE Questions RJR Comm. Group: 0 Gleaner Company (Media) Ltd: 1 Nationwide News Network: 0 Jamaica Today: 0

PEP – ABILITY TEST GENERAL PREPARATIONS FOR 2019

Test materials are being packaged to be dispatched to the regions as scheduled:

Delivery date

Examination

Region 4, 3, 5 6, 2 , 1 Region 4, 3, 5 6, 2 , 1

February 22, 2019 February 25, 2019

PEP - Ability Test PEP - Ability Test

Return date to SAU February 28, 2019 February 27, 2019

Examination

PEP – Ability Test PEP - Ability Test

All regions will distribute to schools on Monday, February 25, 2019

• The training of presiding examiners and invigilators across all parishes was scheduled to be completed on February 13, 2019.

• Monitors are being recruited and trained to give support to the administration.

•Timetables were distributed to the schools in January 2019.

PEP number of students slated to sit the examination

n All Schools - Total registered - 41,423

Boys - 21,548

Girls - 19,875

n No. of males confirmed to sit: 20, 891

n No. of females confirmed to sit: 19, 313

No. of registered, eligible students who have deferred: Female = 562: Male = 657 = Total 1,219