There have been renewed calls by the T&T Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA) to scrap the Continuous Assessment Component (CAC) of the Secondary Entrance Assessment Examination (SEA).
This follows the latest incident in which all of the music scores which were uploaded in 2015 and contributed to the final scores of the 2016 SEA candidates “cannot be located.”
In addition it is alleged that the scores for all the other CAC subjects (Agri–science, PE, Science, Character and Citizenship Education, Drama, Creative Writing and Art) have been “mixed up” by the IT department of the Ministry of Education by allocating incorrect marks to students, thereby compromising the integrity of the 2016 SEA exam.
Speaking to the Sunday Guardian yesterday, TTUTA president Devanand Sinanan said, “There are many irregularities associated with the CAC.
“We've called on the Ministry of Education to put an immediate halt to the CAC at the Standard Four level. We’ve written a letter to the Education Minister Anthony Garcia to that effect and once again reiterate that call.
“That issue is not the first time this has happened, it seems to be the norm whereby instructions are inconsistent and change on a daily basis.”
He said that principals were being made to make practically daily trips to the divisional offices to either drop off or collect items.
Sinanan said the level of frustration that was currently being experienced by teachers, principals, students and parents was phenomenal.
He said during consultations the frustration that people were experiencing and their concerns would have come out loud and clear.
Sinanan said at each consultation people were complaining bitterly about the CAC, again calling on the ministry to put a halt to it and the ball was in the ministry’s court.
He said taking into consideration the long list of complaints, along with the latest directive from the ministry, TTUTA reiterated its call for the CAC to be halted at least at the Standard Four level until a proper review was done on the whole programme and the issues causing concern were dealt with.
Garcia: I am not aware of incident
When Education Minister Anthony Garcia returned the Sunday Guardian’s call yesterday, he said he was not aware of the incident of the missing CAC music scores and other subjects. After he was apprised of the situation he promised to have the matter investigated.