A story which first appeared on Jason Sifflet’s Flogg Blogg, had the Ministry of Education and the Minister himself doing damage control this week. Last week the “blogg” wrote about an apparent error in awarding the correct common entrance examination marks to a student of the Monchy Primary School.
On Monday, Minister of Education Robert Lewis and registrar of examinations Carmelita Matthew admitted the error during an appearance on Shelton Daniel’s 90 minute show on RSL.
The registrar for examinations noted that following a review of the results for the student Lovelle Motley, her overall score moved from 87 to 96 per cent. This now places the student in the tenth position on the national list of high achievers.
One of the areas which drew the suspicion of Lovelle’s parents who queried the matter was when she was scored a zero in the area headed “understanding.” The “A” student’s parents knew straight away that something was wrong.
According to Matthew, the new result has been handed to the parents of Motley who has been assigned to Saint Joseph’s Convent her first choice.
Speaking to the media after his radio appearance Education minister denied reports of any cover-up on the part of his ministry.
There also appeared to be no effort on the part of the minister to apologize to Lovelle or her family for the discomfort caused. There was also no attempt to allay the fears of the public that the system, when it comes to Common Entrance might be flawed.
The ministry or the minister has also refused to comment on why it took so long after the results were announced, more than three weeks ago, to correct the error. Matthew for her part has emphasized that the results can be queried and reviewed by parents at any time if a request is so desired.
