National Exams

Last week my school took part in administering national assessments in Language Arts and Mathematics.  All 3^rd and 5^th graders on the island are tested each year to see what they learned in 2^nd and 4rth grade.  The tests took about 90 minutes for students to complete. For two days this week, I left my class in the care of substitute teacher and I joined fifth grade teachers from schools all over the island to mark the tests. About 60 of us sat down and worked on heaps of papers. Each test had to be checked twice and teachers with smaller classes helped those with large enrollments. It was interesting to chat with teachers from the government (public) schools and to look at their students’ work.  For the Language Arts test, students had to write to the prompt: ‘Tell about a time you were punished’.  It was quite evident that corporal punishment is alive and well in some of the schools here as students recounted the number of ‘licks’ they received for a variety of misdemeanors ranging from stealing lunch money to wearing pants too low on the hips.