Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter

Blair

After investigating reports of irregularities during the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT), the education ministry has blacklisted a veteran presiding examiner for interfering with the proceedings and misleading students during the communication task component of the exam.

While the ministry admits there was a breach at St John's Primary in Spanish Town, St Catherine, Gleaner sources have revealed that another indiscretion by an invigilator occurred at a Kingston-based primary and junior high school.

The sources pointed out that this breach also took place during communication task.

Colin Blair, director of communications at the ministry, confirmed that an infraction occurred at St John's Primary.

"We got a report that there were irregularities in the conduct of the GSAT. In fact, I think it was the principal of the school who wrote to us."

He added: "There were allegations that a presiding examiner had misled students in communication task."

Blair also disclosed that the 14-year invigilation veteran has been delisted by the ministry.

"What we have done, we've asked that this person be struck from the list. They won't be used again," he said. However, the ministry's communications director believes the presiding examiner and her team of invigilators were just trying to assist the students.

"They intervened and helped to explain things, which created a problem. The examiner has admitted that what they did was improper," he explained.

Forced to comply

During the education ministry's investigation into the violation at St John's Primary, it was revealed that one female candidate asked the presiding examiner if "when you imagine that you are someone, you pretend to be that person and if you are that person so you should write your name as if you are that person".

The report also noted that a male candidate asked the presiding examiner to read the instructions for him as he could not read, and then asked which name he should write.

According to the report, the examiner offered an explanation to both candidates and instructed them to write their names in the space provided. She then told all the candidates to write their names and not the name of the child in the passage.

"Candidates who did not comply were made to comply as the presiding examiner and invigilators stood by them and would not move untilthey changed what they had written," read the report.

One of the students would have none of it and decided to put up resistance. In the end, the child yeilded to his superiors.

Dissent squashed

"One student debated with the presiding examiner for a long time but was made to comply in the end," the report stated.

This was a clear breach.

"They should not have intervened," Blair said. The intervention led by the presiding examiner was not only a breach, it was also erroneous, as it was later discovered that the students were forced to write the wrong thing.

One student told ministry officials that the examiner said the person who wrote the paper made a mistake. The ministry document also revealed that after all the candidates had complied with the examiner's directive, one invigilator who was not convinced that the presiding examiner interpreted the instructions correctly instructed some of the students to do otherwise.

The report also listed the names of the 41 students who admitted involvement in the breach.

In May, Sharon Neil, acting assistant chief education officer, responded by way of a letter to Mrs J. Cunningham, principal of St John's Primary, informing her that an investigation was being carried out and assured her that "the students who might have been affected will in no way be penalised".

Wrote in march 30

Cunningham had written to the education ministry on March 30 about the irregularities in the conduct of the exam.

In her response, dated May 12, 2009, Neil also noted that the ministry would "be taking action to ensure that the standards established for the conduct of the examination will be upheld".

Almost 50,000 grade six students sat the examinations, which guide the placement of students in secondary schools, in late March. GSAT replaced the Common Entrance Examination in 1999.

tyrone.reid@gleanerjm.com