Despite the announcement that the abolition of the Barbados Secondary Schools’ Entrance Examination (BSSEE) is imminent, the annual rite of academic passage – the high-stakes Maths and English test of 11-year-olds to determine high school placement – went off without a hitch on Tuesday.
At the island’s 21 public secondary schools that served as exam sites, parents crowded at the gates to embrace their children before and after the examination, amid a mix of confidence, anxiety, joyous relief, hope and fear.
“I feel awesome, he is ready for it,” said parent Remington Alleyne about his son Aiden before the exam. “We’ve had a lot of preparations, going to lessons, homework, doing all the other things.”
St Ambrose Primary student Kayla Simmons said: “My body is just shaking, and that is why I am kind of nervous. I mostly want to go to Lodge or Foundation.”
After completing the exam, student Jayda said: “For the English, it was kind of hard, but for the comprehension, it was not too bad. For the math, it required a lot more thinking than usual.”
Her mother Jenna expressed her pride: “Very, very happy. It’s like a weight lifted, but I know that she did her best. I am proud of her regardless.”
The Ministry of Education declared its commitment to ensuring fairness and accessibility for the exam, even as it has targeted the abolition of the exam as part of its ambitious education transformation policy. At Princess Margaret Secondary, Minister of Education Kay McConney said stringent security protocols were followed with regards to when the test papers were received, how they’re received, who receives them, who records them and where they are stored.
She told reporters she was satisfied with the management and protocols “around what is happening with the papers”.
Senior Education Officer Pat Warner explained that on the exam day, accommodations were made for students with disabilities or special needs, including assistance for a reader, extra time and separate rooms for those sensitive to distractions.
“For accommodations, you can have assistance for a reader, a writer if there are some disabilities, and those are really the major considerations. There are students who will have to have extra time, and that is extremely important because at the pace that they would write, they would need that extra time,” she said.
With 3 011 students taking the exam this year, down from 3 170 last year, McConney said examination day was a culmination of meticulous planning and adaptation to diverse student needs, including early-sitters and those with unique challenges.
Principal of Princess Margaret Secondary Veronica Annel-Agard said the Six Roads school hosted 198 students from five St Philip primary schools – St Catherine, Hilda Skeene, Reynold Weekes, Bayley’s and St Martins-Mangrove – and three homeschooled students.
St Ambrose Primary Principal Stacey Drakes expressed confidence in her students: “I am confident that they will give of their best; they along with their teachers have prepared and prepared well, and their best is good enough.”
Students like Rickirah James from Hindsbury Primary found parts of the exam manageable despite some challenges. “It was okay. A few questions were challenging but I got through, I overcame them, and it was manageable.”
Her classmate Taylor Thomas said the exams were “good” and hoped to pass for admission to her preferred school, The St Michael School.
While some students like the unnamed Hindsbury Primary student felt stronger in areas like grammar and composition versus maths, overall there was a sense of relief at having completed the gruelling exam process.
Parent Kofe Jean-Baptiste summed up the approach that many peers likely took: “We decided we did not want to put any pressure, so we always kept a balance…– a time to do the work but also gave him that time to rest and relax his mind.”
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