CSEC test scripts arrival delayed at Santa Rosa Secondary School

Students at the Santa Rosa Secondary School on Monday were not able to sit a Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exam as per the timetable owing to a delay in the school receiving the exam papers.
This is according to parents of the students who contacted Guyana Times to report the delay. The timetable has Agriculture Science listed as the lone subject for Monday, to be written during the morning hours. However, when students arrived to write the subject, they were reportedly sent back home after being told by the Headmistress of the School that the test scripts had not arrived. The subject was written at approximately 12:45h in the afternoon.
One angry parent told this publication that her child returned home after leaving for the examination, and told her that the examination would be conducted in the afternoon since the test papers had not arrived. She relayed that this annoyed her because CSEC is considered a major examination within the Caribbean and such a delay should not have occurred had there been proper preparations made.
Another parent highlighted that she was inconvenienced owing to the change of time for the examination, “I live far from the school, so my child had to spend money to go, then come home then go back again. My money was wasted.”
The parents all believe the situation was unfair and say that they have reason to wonder if there was some sort of discrimination aimed at the residents of Region One (Barima-Waini).
‘’It’s unfair to us. Maybe it’s because they have something against us since we’re in the interior ‘cause all the other schools around started writing exams this morning. Is only the Santa Rosa School had to write it this afternoon.’’
When this publication spoke to the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Education Ministry on this matter, she confirmed that there had been a delay in providing examination scripts to the Santa Rosa Secondary School. She added that the matter had been dealt with and the students were able to write their examinations later in the afternoon. “I can confirm that yes, there was a delay in getting the papers to the students, but as usual, the Ministry had mechanisms put in place and they (students) were able to write the exams and given extra time to finish.”