Tears of sorrow, joy at Rosary Boys and Girls

When Newsday visited, some students were crying in the courtyard while screams from the bathroom area could be heard. Many parents did not want to speak with reporters, opting instead to console and offer encouragement to their emotional children. This was not the case however, with Dalia Lutchman, 12, who passed for her first choice school, St George’s College.

Her parents Kumar and Martha Lutchman stood in shock as she revealed the results to them. “We are shocked, but she is deserving of her results because she worked very hard.

We are very proud of her achievement as it is proof that hard work really pays off,” Mrs Lutchman said.

At the Rosary Boys, the atmosphere was different with joy being the predominant emotion expressed by students. Principal Richard Gomez said his school did fairly well and he was surprised one of his students placed at Presentation College in San Fernando.

Contacted for comment, Clinical Therapist and Clinical Traumatologist Hanif Benjamin said that the SE A should not be an exam for children at such a young age due to the pressure this exam places on them.

He said children in their early teens should not be put through the wringer of such a rigorous exam, mentally and psychologically, because they are not prepared for the level of the exam.

“What we need to find is a way of transitioning children into the secondary school. They need to find a different way of assessments. The pressure that is put on children by the schools and parents...by parents because of the status quo, they want their child to go to a prestigious or a good school, and by the schools they want their statistics and their numbers to look good and because we are a credentialed society.” He continued, “Where of course the first thing that came out of the news this morning is the schools that had the top performing students.

They took 200 students out of 18,000 and they reward them...they get to meet the Prime Minister and the President because they did well. I have no problem with students being rewarded for doing well but, what are we saying to the other students who have also done their best and are faced with challenges?” He said there are many students in TT who could not afford extra lessons or have assessed different resources.

“The playing field is not equal. When you say to children that we are putting you all to line up in one race and you have to run this race and we are going to pick the top 200 or 100, but yet only ten per cent of all who set the exam have the advantage. How does one reconcile that? ” Benjamin said there is no doubt why some children were crying out in disbelief and was left heartbroken yesterday, because the pressure and the burden that would have been placed on them, they are now realising that they did not get their first or second choice.

“We have to look out for students who did not do as well as they would have liked to because this is a time where we see a lot of ‘suicidality’, a lot of anxiety, a lot of stress, and a lot of worry from both parents and children because of the shame and embarrassment that goes along with it and that goes along with it because of the pressure we put on our children.”