Kamla claims SEA cook-up

THE Education Ministry has been accused of “cooking” the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examination results to favour children of PNM supporters.

Former Education Minister in the UNC government, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, levelled the charge during a mobilisation meeting in support of the Opposition party’s Local Government candidates for Siparia and Penal/Debe last Thursday at Unity Court, Fyzabad. Addressing a medium-sized crowd, Persad-Bissessar, in congratulating the over 20,000 pupils who wrote the SEA exams, said her office had been bombarded with calls from anxious parents who indicated that while their children had all been placed in secondary schools, the majority had ended up in Junior Secondary schools. “Many UNC supporters’ children have ended up in Junior Secondary schools, and you know why, because the Ministry of Education deliberately cooked the results to give their PNM friends’ children places in the best schools,” Persad-Bissessar thundered.” “But we will not let that rest there,” she said, as she called on aggrieved parents to contact the Opposition Leader’s Port-of-Spain offices to lodge an official complaint. “Collect your children’s performance reports then use the hot line so that we can take up this issue,” she said.