After careful consideration and as a result of what they deemed as “unhealthy competitiveness”, the Ministry of Education has decided that the public announcement of top-ranking schools and SEA performances will be discontinued by this year.
Minister of Education Dr. Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, during a news conference on Friday, said that the announcement based on preliminary scores was intended by the Ministry to celebrate the achievements of young scholars throughout the country.
However, she said the practice has morphed into one that places pressure on students and focuses on the ranking as opposed to the achievement.
Gadsby-Dolly said: “The Ministry of education has for some time publicly acknowledged the top sea performers at schools based on preliminary examination scores. In so doing, the MOE has been sharing with the public the top examination SEA performance. The intention behind this practice was to inspire and openly commend and celebrate our nation’s young scholars and to encourage other learning and hearing about these top performances to achieve similar success.”
“However as recent events have shown this public practice has also begin to result in less that desirable and wholly unintended results, in particular this public practice has resulted in students who have performed admirably to the extent of securing places in their secondary school of first choice to have their meritorious performances overshadowed by an unhealthy competitiveness often driven by parents over relative examination scores which are preliminary,” she said.
She said that only after the review process by the Ministry is complete, parents or guardians can request an official ranking that will be provided privately.
“The Ministry of Education is extremely concerned that this public practice now has the ability to cause our young scholars to be placed under undue pressure to secure a high ranking based on preliminary exam scores. The government has taken the decision that with effect from this year the Ministry will no longer be making public announcements of rankings at the SEA based on preliminary examination scores.”
Gadsby-Dolly said: “Rather and with effect from 2022, the ranking list of SEA scores will only be finalized after the review period has elapsed and upon written request only consideration will be given by the Ministry of Education to the provision of the final rank to parents or guardians individually and privately.”
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