BUT unhappy with proposed Common Entrance Exam date

By Ryan Gilkes

The date set for the sitting of the Common Entrance or 11 Plus exams could shift to a month later – if the union representing the nation’s public primary school teachers gets its way.

A day after the Ministry of Education announced May 7 as the proposed date for the Barbados Secondary Schools Entrance Examination (BSSEE), Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) President Rudy Lovell expressed concern that having the exam on the first Tuesday in May would not provide enough time for students, given what he described as interruptions and challenges faced by schools throughout the school year.

Under the plans outlined in the ministry’s proposals for education transformation, this would be the exam’s last sitting before being replaced by a transfer system to junior and later senior colleges.

“The [BUT] is of the opinion that an early June date would be more adequate for those persons who are sitting the Barbados Secondary School’s Entrance Examination,” Lovell told Barbados TODAY. 

“I am confident, based on what was said by the Class Four teachers who deliver the instruction, that the students will benefit from additional time, given the fact that there were so many interruptions at various schools throughout the year. We also want to state, too, that over the past two or three years, some form of consultation with teachers and the union with regards to the Common Entrance date . . .  and we are a bit taken aback that that wasn’t the case this year.”

Lovell noted that during the COVID-19 pandemic, there were consultations with the unions on the way forward but that this did not happen last year or, seemingly, this year.

“And it is unfortunate, given the comments made by the Minister [of Education Kay McConney] over the weekend, in terms of having a discussion with the union and being partners in education,” he added. “The ideal situation is consultation at every stage. You want us to be partners, yes, but you should not have a partner that you are not speaking to on critical issues. Partnership suggests there is a conversation with the person you have identified as a partner.”

Lovell added: “So, if you have identified the Barbados Union of Teachers as a partner, then you should be having discussions on critical issues. I would not say that it is a misstep, because you are not obligated to speak to it, but given the comments made by the minister, I would have thought that something like this could have been discussed at the level of the union.”

During a walkthrough of the Luther Thorne Primary School on Saturday, the education minister said then the problems that many of the schools were facing were not ‘insurmountable’ but needed to be fixed collectively. (RG)