Maths question stumps students writing SEA

Prayers before exams

Children writing the annual Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examination Thursday ran into an unexpected math problem. One of the questions on the exam paper was about a moth problem that was not on the syllabus, some principals said.

That caused a lot of trauma for many students, who had were unable to answer the question.

Lynsley Doodhai, pre­sident of the National Primary Schools Principals’ Association (NAPSPA), issued a media re­lease about the problem.

Doodhai stated: “Principals have complained to NAPSPA that question number 35 of the mathematics paper was based on the topic ‘Proportion and Ratio’, a topic that is no longer on the primary school mathematics syllabus, having been removed many years ago. This question carries a weighting of three marks out of a total score of 100 marks.”

Doodhai reported that principals said some children began crying during the 30-minute break between the mathematics and language arts papers. He added that some pupils were unable to finish the ma­th­e­matics paper and “their emotional well-being was disturbed for the language arts paper that followed the mathematics paper”.

Reporters attending Thursday's post cabinet media briefing asked Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar about the problem. She said: "I would really want to have my Minister of Education brief me before I can make any informed statement on that matter. I do sympathise and I hope that that matter can be resolved. So I will take it to the Minister of Education."

Education Minister Tim Gopeesingh told the state media he learned about the matter through media reports from several phone calls to the Ministry's Communication Department from concerned parents and teachers. He promised to meet with the Technical Officers of the Ministry of Education on Friday to see how best they can resolve the matter with CXC.