00:01Balloons, flowers, even a dinosaur was in the mix as family and friends waited eagerly
00:07outside Cura Presbyterian to greet the stars of the hour.
00:12Mr. Dinosaur, what brings you here today?
00:14Rawr!
00:16Okay, this dinosaur is here for you, you've got a balloon, you have a sign.
00:20How do you feel receiving all this love today?
00:23Embarrassed.
00:25Mommy, you heard that, but still it's out of love.
00:28How was the exam for you?
00:29It was kind of easy.
00:32So you're feeling very confident then?
00:34Yeah.
00:35What is your first choice?
00:36SOGS.
00:37According to the Ministry of Education, a total of 17,573 students were registered to write the SEA exam today.
00:47And from all accounts we received, this year it was a breeze.
00:52I feel good. I feel very good. It was real good.
00:58Mommy is so emotional. What is happening right now?
01:02I'm excited. It's over. It's a lot. It's been a lot.
01:08It was a challenging process.
01:10A lot of work and lessons and late nights and it's over now. I'm so happy.
01:18It was nice, yeah. I was a little scared but I'm good now, yeah.
01:24And the exam itself, how was it?
01:25It was good. It was good. I would say that the creative writing and mathematics, I would say that the
01:31creative writing and grammar was good.
01:33But it was just like the mathematics that gave me a little bit of trouble.
01:37Over at Curap Anglican, we found a happy trio who told us they're mostly looking forward to going back to
01:44just being boys.
01:45So how do you feel now?
01:48Relieved. Relieved.
01:49Relieved.
01:49Yeah, relieved.
01:50What's the plan? What's the plan next?
01:52Play.
01:53Yeah, play.
01:53Yeah, play.
01:55Half one, half one.
01:56Half one.
01:56Half one.
01:57Yeah, yeah.
01:58It was two years. It was two years prepping.
02:00In time.
02:00You know, I think what really, what we enjoy, not the exam itself but the prep, seeing how he came
02:05from two years ago, how he started to now.
02:09Really growing and getting into work. It was a lot of work for him. You know, I think my time,
02:15I don't think it was that stressful but we're really proud of him.
02:18Really, really proud of him.
02:20Meantime, the wind down was in full swing at the university school as a handful of children decompressed after the
02:27exam and bade goodbye to the SEA.
02:32Goodbye, SEA.
02:33With the exam behind them, they're looking forward to the future.
02:38I thought it would include, like, harder questions. And other than that, everything was good.
02:49So you aced the exam?
02:51I hope so.
02:52What school are you looking forward to attending in September?
02:55Hillview College.
02:56Hillview. You want to play some football?
02:57Yes, of course.
03:00So what's your plan now for today and, you know, for the holidays?
03:05Well, I'm going Orlando with my family and one of my other friends who goes to a different school. So
03:14I'm looking forward to that. And then just more sleep.
03:17Over the years, there have been calls for the government to do away with the exam, which is believed to
03:23be unduly stressful for both parents and pupils. This educator is advocating for continuous assessments.
03:31I think the timing is a little difficult for them. So in part because of that and in part because
03:37of the inability to really be able to place children safely according to merits, because this is a one day
03:44exam. And I truly never believe in this. Right.
03:47So even in at university level, we're moving away from final exams. Right. So most of our students do in
03:53course assessments, which last over 15 weeks. And we're asking our children who are 11 years old, 10 years old,
03:59sometimes 12 years old to be able to make one decision on one day for, you know, that will affect
04:05the rest of their life.
04:05In 2022, a committee was appointed by cabinet to review the secondary entrance assessment and the concordat. Renessa Cutting, TV6
04:16News.
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