By Dr. Moinina David Sengeh
When we published the National Primary School Examination earlier this month, there was lots of confusion about the scores. A major reason behind that was people were worried their kids won’t get into their schools of choice. Will Annie Walsh take candidates who score below 300? They wondered.
My team at MBSSE has continued engaging schools, families and children telling them about how placements are done. Things are automated and digitized at MBSSE these days. It is determined by how many kids sat for a school, how many passed and how many available places there are. We published a list of oversubscribed schools- that is, schools for which many more kids passed than places are available. If you chose an oversubscribed school as anything but your first choice, you won’t get an admission there even if you scored the highest mark. It’s just simple- it’s about justice.
This week and next, over 100,000 children are interviewing to enter junior secondary school after passing their national primary school exam. Thanks to tech and transparency, everyone knows the school at which they can be interviewed. Simple text “Placement” to 468. Things are much quieter this year than previous years. There’s little chaos.
If you are thinking about bribing a school authority only for you to come and shout at my staff that schools are taking money for admission, think about it again. If your child sat for another school as first choice but now wants to go to an oversubscribed school, think about it before you blast the entire system. If your child is being placed in a school that is where he or she should go based on our automated tool, think about it again and explore what your role is in your child’s life.
Na me en you go get for change Salone. We can start today!
And Yes, Annie Walsh did take students who scored below 300 because they had spaces for 304 students in JSS1 and those 290+ scores are exceptionally excellent. Remember they are T-Scores!!!
#RadicalInclusion @DSTISierraLeone
Attachments area