4,000 pupils blanked from CXC

Some 4,000 Form Five pupils will be barred from writing the next CXC Examinations, revealed Minister of Education, Hazel Manning.

She was visiting the House of Representatives on Friday to reply to a motion on the adjournment of the House by Tabaquite MP, Dr Adesh Nanan, who had called for her resignation for alleged incompetence in tackling violence in schools. Announcing steps against school indiscipline, Manning said her Ministry was giving highest priority to teacher absenteeism and to the failure of 4,000 pupils in secondary school to qualify to write the 2004 Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), Cambridge Exams and National Examinations Council (NEC) Exams. She said her Ministry was planning to conduct a special programme from January to May 2004 to ensure these non-qualifying students are engaged in productive learning activities.

With respect to teacher absenteeism, she said: “The Ministry intends to put into operation a substitute teacher system and provide a fund from which principals could recruit instructors in urgently needed areas.” The Ministry, she added, was developing a support programme for teachers who were “challenged and burnt out.” As part of her Project Peace launched in March, she said that for 14 high risk schools she might contract non-governmental organisations with relevant expertise and experience to help these “schools under stress’ to recover from their “ill-health.”