SEA students pray for exam success

STUDENTS writing tomorrow’s Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exam visited churches throughout the country yesterday, to pray for the best in the four- hour exam. At Trinity Cathedral in Port-of-Spain, the Standard Five classes from Richmond Street Boys’, Trinity Junior, St Catherine’s Girls Anglican and Eastern Government Boys/Girls schools gathered with their teachers and parents, as well as Education minister Hazel Manning and School Supervisor II Avril Sampson, for a mass which was replete with hymns and readings.

The students, who appeared relaxed and ready for tomorrow’s exam, were told by Dean Colin Sampson that it was “okay to be a little frightened and shaky, with a few butterflies in the stomach.” He reassured them that “you can control it,” advising to say a prayer before starting the exam as well as to read the questions carefully and begin answering the more difficult ones first. He told them to stretch their limits of goodness and challenged the ministry to provide one school in which all the children who scored 100 percent, could be placed.

In her homily, Reverend Lyris Bailey  told of how Mother Teresa (Agnes) began charitable work and urged students to use principles of “God-fearing, obedience, compassion, commitment, determination and charity,” as Mother Teresa did, to be successful. The students were reminded that they should not measure success by “fail or pass,” but that, “education is total, all embracing and it’s never too late to make a start.” Saying that tomorrow would be a “meaningful red letter day” in their lives, Rev Bailey invited a child from each school to offer prayers to “family life, youths, teachers and those writing the SEA.”

In her brief address, Manning  asked for special blessings on all students writing the exam. She pointed out that it will be the 45th anniversary of the 11-plus assessment, which every year brings hope to thousands for further education. She said SEA is being accepted by all as “an important component in the education system,” and urged students to face it with “calm and confidence.” She told them to be “brave, steadfast and confident and know that whatever the outcome, your country needs you.”

“It is like a rite of passage into a life of learning and self development. The skills you acquired will last your entire life, and your practiced attitudes of dedication and preservation will lay the foundation for personal growth,” Manning said. She also said that the students had every reason to feel confident and optimistic because there was a new secondary curriculum catering to the varied interests of all. A total of 19,883 students are registered to write the exams, which is approximately 1,000 less than the 20,912 registered last year. The exam will be written at 547 centres and there is the guarantee that all students would be placed into schools when the results are announced during the first week of July.