Denise Reid, Freelance Writer

Western Bureau:

Minister of Education Andrew Holness is to outline the process by which the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) top performers are selected in an address to Parliament next Tuesday.

The minister's intervention comes on the heels of demands from school administrators, teachers and parents across the island, that the education ministry come forward with an explanation as to the method used to arrive at the top performers.

Since the names of the top performers were revealed this week, many concerned parents have been calling the ministry, claiming their children had higher averages than those reported.

The awardees are James Robertson and Hye Kung Moon.

We want to know the criteria

"All we want to know is the criteria they use. How do they add the scores to come up with a top boy or girl?" commented Allette Miller-Gordon, teacher and mother of Latanya Gordon a student of Esher Primary in Lucea, Hanover.

In a release yesterday, the ministry said it had thoroughly reviewed the scores of the students named as top performers and was satisfied that the correct students had been chosen.

It also said that, based on the queries received, it was evident there was some level of misunderstanding in the methods parents were using to determine the criteria for selection.

Alton Davis, acting director of communication at the ministry, told The Gleaner this was not the first time the ministry had used the method Holness is to outline on Tuesday.

"It's a method that is used in statistical variation ... because when you have subjects that are weighted differently, there must be some sort of standardisation to arrive at a figure that can be used for ranking purposes," Davis said.

denise.reid@gleanerjm.com