HENRY-WILSON Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter
She spent sleepless nights preparing for her Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) biology examination, but Dimone Burke of Happy Grove High School in Portland is now upset that some residents blocked several roads on Monday, preventing her from sitting the exam she prepared so hard for.
Dimone, who resides in Port Antonio, was unaware of the massive roadblocks which were mounted by angry residents, who were protesting against the deplorable condition of the roads in the parish. And so she set out for school which is about 33 miles from home.
When she got to the main road and ran into one of the roadblocks, she called her teacher, who told her to report to the nearest examination centre. This centre was Fair Prospect High School.
Dimone says when she and two other students who were sitting information technology, which was scheduled for the afternoon, reported to school, the principal gave her the bad news, that the school was not offering biology paper one and three which were scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m and 10:25 a.m, respectively.
The principal then called Happy Grove to have them fax the biology examination paper, which would allow Dimone to sit the examination. But as luck would have it, a tree was cut down in the area and had fallen on an electric wire, which resulted in a power outage.
She was devastated. "I was very, very prepared for this examination because I want to be a neurosurgeon and I have to have biology," she told The Gleaner yesterday.
"When I reached Fair Prospect High and I realised that I was denied the chance of doing my exam because of the people who blocked the road, I was upset, and I think this is really unfair," the 17-year-old student bemoaned.
Left with no other choice, Dimone decided that nothing would prevent her from sitting information technology.
"So I remained calm and did the information technology at Fair Prospect in the afternoon because I realised that I missed out on one exam and I wasn't going to allow myself to get upset and fail this one," she told The Gleaner.
The Overseas Examination Office said mechanisms would be put in place to assess biology students who would have already done paper two and their school-based assessments. But Dimone wanted to sit the examination and earn the grade that she deserves.
Pupils' interest should be paramount - Henry-Wilson
Minister of Education and Youth Maxine Henry-Wilson has expressed her regret to those students who were either unable to or were delayed in reaching the examination centres to sit their CSEC exams on Monday as a result of blockades on several roads in Portland.
"Examinations are by nature high-anxiety events. To add to the burden of uncertainty of commute can only have the most negative impact on examination candidates," Mrs. Henry-Wilson said.
She commended the Overseas Examination Office for making alternative arrangements for those students who were affected and noted that information received by the ministry indicated only a few students were not taken care of.
She said that while she recognised there were significant issues relating to the state of the roads in the affected areas, those who resorted to blocking the roads could not have been unaware of the importance of these examinations to the future of the nation's children.
Mrs. Henry-Wilsonasked that students' interests be made paramount and that they be allowed access to their relevant examination centres.
petrina.francis@gleanerjm.com
