By Prior Beharry
THE PARENTS of a 14-year-old Fatima student who attained the highest marks in the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exam of 2020 after a review wants him to be awarded the President’s Gold Medal for his achievement.
This is because Ameera Beekhoo is scheduled to receive the medal on Monday from President Paula-Mae Weekes after she was celebrated as the first place student of SEA in October 2020 by the Ministry of Education based on preliminary results.
And Minister of Education Nyan Gadsby-Dolly is maintaining that the policy has always been to announce the top students of the SEA exams based on preliminary results.
Aaron Subero, who sat the SEA exam from Maria Regina Grade School, had his marks for English Language Arts Writing reviewed and it was move from 18 marks to the full marks of 20. This placed him as the student with the highest marks for SEA 2020.
His parents Natasha De Coteau-Subero and Jason Subero have threatened to file on his behalf a claim for judicial review to have a decision by the Ministry of Education revoked to allow him to receive the President’s Gold Medal for being the top performer of SEA 2020.
That ceremony is scheduled to take place on Monday and a pre-action protocol letter has been sent to the ministry giving it a deadline of 2 pm on Friday (today) to respond or else a matter will be filed in the high court.
The letter was sent by attorney Rishawn Eccles who is instructing Cedric Neptune and Tynneille Tuitt.
The legal document has been sent to the Attorney General, the Chief Education Officer and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education. It has also been copied to President Weekes and Gadbsy-Dolly.
Speaking to reporters outside Parliament on Friday morning, Gadbsy-Dolly maintained that the basis for naming top performers in the SEA was based on preliminary results.
She said 2020 was the first time that a student who passed for his first choice and was in the top tier of the SEA had his marks reviewed. The minister said Aaron had placed ninth or tenth based on preliminary results.
Gadbsy-Dolly said, “SEA is primarily an examination to place a child in a (secondary) school.”
She said every year there were about 300 to 400 reviews with about 40 of these allowing children to be placed in the first choice without any displacement of other students.
According to the pre-action protocol letter, Aaron received his results on October 2020 and had a composite standard score (weighted) of 253.964 after having obtained:
- English Language Arts Writing – 18/20;
- English Language Arts – 96.40 /100; and
- Mathematics – 100/100.
The letter stated, “After receiving those results, even though pleased with his placement Aaron and his teacher were both surprised at the scores for the examination for English Language Arts Writing.
“This was because Aaron usually performed exceedingly well in that particular subject area. Aaron told his parents that he knew based on the way he wrote the examination that he expected a higher score.”
His parents then had his English Language Arts Writing reviewed and it was upgraded 20 marks (100%) which gave him a new composite Standard Score (weighted) of 257.329 257.
“By the letter dated 31st March 2022, the Chief Education Officer of the MOE invited the Principal of Maria Regina Grade School Ms Kathryn Seow to an awards ceremony for the SEA 2020,” Aaron’s parents stated.
The legal letter stated, “Upon receiving the information, Mrs Natasha De Coteau-Subero notified Aaron and began making the necessary arrangements to attend this event along with family members.
“Aaron was pleased and excited to learn that he obtained the top result in the Secondary Entrance Assessment examinations, and he notified friends and family of the good news.”
But, the letter on March 31 was rescinded five days later by another one from the ministry which stated, “due to the fact that awards are given based on preliminary scores, Mr Subero was identified as the top performer in error, requiring reversion to the 1st and 2nd place performers as was publicly acknowledged.”
Aaron was even willing to share the prize with Beekhoo.
The attorney wrote, “In essence, Aaron was now being told that he would not be the recipient of the President’s Medal (Gold) despite having the highest results in the Secondary Entrance Assessment Examination on the sole basis that the awards are based on the preliminary results, which identified Ms Ameera Beekho and Ms Anjanaa Dan as 1st and 2nd top performers in the SEA for the year 2020.”
He added, “Mrs Natasha De Coteau-Subero on receiving this letter contacted the Chief Education Officer and spoke to her in person. Mrs Coteau-Subero informed the Chief Education Officer that Aaron was deserving of the award by reason of his achievement of the highest result for the award.
“Mrs. De Coteau-Subero further advised that Aaron had no difficulty in sharing the first-place position with the other student who was identified as having the highest preliminary score. The rationale behind the suggestion was that:
- Aaron wanted to embrace and celebrate the recognition of his excellent performance in the examination and that all his hard work and effort was recognized and valued by his friends, the Ministry of Education, and the general public; and
- Aaron was cognizant that Ms. Beekho had great expectations to receive such an award based on the preliminary result.
“Despite the reasonableness of this suggestion, it was rejected it and stated that the issuance of two Gold medals to Aaron and Ms Beekho respectively could not be facilitated.”
Gadbsy-Dolly has described the situation as disappointing and has put the blame on a senior official of the ministry who without approval stated that Aaron would be awarded the medal. She said she was exploring her options regarding that official.
The declarations being claimed include:
- An order of certiorari to remove into this Honourable Court to quash the failure and refusal of the decision of the Defendant dated the 5th April 2022 to rescind the award to Aaron Subero of the President’s Medal (Gold) in the Primary Education for being the top performer in the Secondary Entrance Assessment Examination and for Mr Aaron Subero to share the award with Ms. Ameerah Beekhoo; and
- An order of certiorari to remove to this Honourable Court to quash the policy where students are only granted President’s Medal awards based on the preliminary list of the Secondary Entrance Assessment examination.
The original method of NO review should stand!!!
Aaron was 9th or 10th before the review
Surely the other 9/10 children are entitled to the same review that Aaron received???
Who knows who really was tops????