It is ironic that as I sat in one of the Cathedrals of Saint Lucian education,Saint Mary’s College,SMC that I first echoed aloud a sentiment I had felt for months now. The Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment, CPEA, was a wasted alternative to the Common Entrance Exam, CEE.
The latter exam was an exclusive assessment, never truly to assign school placement. Rather it was to regulate the number of students who got to secondary schools as the shift system still existed and available places were limited. CPEA meanwhile was supposed to be this great equaliser, a modern exam to finally break down the shackles of colonialism we had been left with. Meant to decenter one shot exams and release stress, it contributes to different problems with grade 7 teachers complaining about students’ ability to take tests, critically think or write original pieces.
So why the shift to CPEA when USE (Universal Secondary Education) guarantees all placement at a secondary school? And have sufficient spots in fact with a dwindling population. Too many spaces, with fewer students and schools like George Charles Secondary and Vieux Fort Technical shuttering and the rates slowing down noticeably. In 1994-1995 4,870 persons wrote common entrance exams and by 2008/9 3102 had registered for the same exam (GOSL, 2024).
The answer of course is to perpetuate the concept of elite primary and secondary schools. From the dawn of time schools have been prestigious not necessarily by whoever attended but by who they excluded. And from then on, the greatest wealth in being elite lies in the fact that though many can be graduates of certain schools there still lies the relative privilege of being the creme de la creme. If any and everyone can go to these schools where the top 10 are usually assigned without fault, then what would serve as an emblem of the old boys/girls club? Well-wishers often hope you pass for Convent or College with the best of wishes, a stark reflection of how insidious this elite puffery has taken root. Some may scorn and say this may be sour grapes on my part, having donned the maroon and yellow of Soufriere Comprehensive, SCCS. Alas you’d be quite mistaken as I recall once telling a colleague who asked which secondary school my sister was attending ” for my mother there’s only one secondary school on the island and that’s SCSS.” And that is the same ethos by which I operate.
The stigma of having gone to certain schools is first brought by knowing you scored below a certain score, then the sneer and disdain which follows when they hear you go to those schools rather than the prestigious Cathedrals. Moreover, the pipeline continues that if you go to these primary schools then mercifully you have a chance to rid yourself of the stench of failure associated with the non-elite schools. It is time to diminish the power of what elitism has done to our education system, starting with the eradication of CPEA. A child who scores 12 and lives in cedars should be able to go to Convent, whilst a child in La Pansee scoring 30 should have no difficulty going to school at college. In similar fashion a child who scores 96 and lives in the Valley should naturally attend CMMSS. The sole aversion to such ideas is the years of cognitive training we have had to believe that such a reality is not only wrong but abhorrent. That their Cathedral will now finally be on a level playing field with other schools who for years have had to produce diamonds out of the rough.
A whole new generation of thought needs to be reshaped if we are to get rid of this CPEA albatross. Its only value may be if we are using it to determine student traits to enroll them into a sports academy, math and science polytechnics, art-based schools and thus need to streamline them into a school that best nurtures their talents then perhaps it may stay.
But until then? Long may elitism ring.