Not our test, says Code.org

The American-based organisation initially named as administrator of a controversial Computer Science pre-test, Code.org, has cleared the air on its role in the survey.

A senior official of the non-profit organisation told Barbados TODAY  that the non-profit organisation had neither sanctioned nor administered the test.

Upset parents of secondary school students raised the alarm about the test on Tuesday, reporting that their children were required to answer highly invasive and inappropriate questions on a Computer Science test administered the day before.

The first formers complained they were quizzed on their sexuality, gender identity, substance use and abuse, as well as personal information about their parents during the two-hour long test.

In a memorandum that was issued at one school by the Principal last week said Code.org was responsible for the test.

“Please be informed that all first formers will take the pre-test in Computer Science organised by Code.org…. The process has been sanctioned by the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training and Code.org will provide the personnel to supervise the examinations,” the correspondence read.

However, Chief Academic Officer at Code.org Pat Yongpradit, told Barbados TODAY the information contained in that memo was inaccurate.

He explained that the test was administered by the Inter-American Development Bank.

“The pretest was not a Code.org pretest. Code.org did not sanction the pretest questions and Code.org did not organise or provide personnel to supervise the examinations.

“The pretest questions were administered by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which is also responsible for the overall management of the project. The IDB has since apologised for the use of the questions,” Yongpradit said.

He further explained that Code.org’s role in the project in Barbados was “to provide the computer science curriculum to train teachers, to consult on the implementation of the curriculum in schools and scaling of the program across Barbados”.

In issuing an apology for the inclusion of the controversial questions, Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw pledged the Ministry of Education’s continued support for the Code.org project.

“The Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, however, assures parents that it maintains confidence in the overall purpose and aim of the Code.org project which includes the effective development of computer science skills among first year secondary school students,” she said.

“This project, of which the survey is a critical component, is being conducted by Code.org under the auspices of the Inter-American Development Bank.”

Code.org is a non-profit organisation and eponymous website led by Hadi and Ali Partovi that aims to encourage people, particularly school students in the United States, to learn computer science.

It claims that 67 million students and two million teachers utilise its website, which has led to over 216 million projects being created.