The Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) does not measure a child’s ability.
This, from Chair of the Committee to Review the SEA and Concordat, Professor Jerome De Lisle, who said this is one of the Committee’s major findings.
Professor De Lisle declared in a round-up of the Public Consultation on Thursday evening that socio economic factors greatly affect the outcome of the exams. He also said that what society wants is to make easy and all encompassing judgements on children’s abilities, and this is simply unrealistic. He said the reality is education is a complex matter involving issues such as stress, managing the actual transition from Primary to Secondary School, and even the seemingly mundane topic of zoning.
Professor de Lisle said the answers on how to treat with the SEA can be found, but only by doing the hard work of research, benchmarking with other countries, and listening to all stakeholders.