It is fitting that Kristi Charles' memorable year-long GSAT results story should come to a conclusion close to the time results for this year's exams were published.

Kristi, of course, already has her place in high school at Campion College, where she is on the honour roll. But as The Gleaner reported yesterday, the result that really mattered this time was that of a court case brought by her parents, Cleopatra and Timothy Charles, against the Ministry of Education.

Their daughter had got the highest grade islandwide in the 2007 GSAT exams, but was not recommended for a Scotiabank Jamaica Foundation Scholarship because it was claimed that she might have seen the test paper, allegedly leaked to the homework centre she attended.

She has been awarded the Ministry of Education's Excellence Scholarship, and the plan is to invest the $205,000 payable over seven years towards Kristi's goal of studying medicine at Harvard in the United States.

However, Minister of Education Andrew Holness made a significant point at the scholarship presentation, as we reported he said that "the GSAT examination was perhaps the most important examination in Jamaica", adding that for many parents the test determined the life outcome of their children.

High or low self-esteem

That importance is not only academic, in terms of which high school they will attend, which to a large extent can determine tertiary level training, career path and hence earning power, but also with regards to their self-esteem. And that self-esteem (or lack thereof) is as critical to the outcome of a person's life as his or her mental capacity.

We have, thankfully, gone past the stage where occasionally children would commit suicide because of Common Entrance results, that examination structured strictly along pass/fail lines. The GSAT does, however, place children in high schools according to his or her grades, with the perception being that the preferred traditional high schools are reserved for the 'brightest'.

And the children who do not get into their preferred schools will have issues of perceived shortcomings to contend with.

We are delighted that Kristi Charles, despite not only her ability but also her integrity being questioned by the decision not to award her the Scotiabank Jamaica Foundation Scholarship last year, as was her due, continued to perform at a level which earned her a place on Campion's honour roll. It would have been easy, especially at her young age, to cry injustice and give up.

A question of personal integrity

Unstated, but still undeniably part of the situation, is the prep vs primary school debate. For Kristi went to Sts Peter and Paul Preparatory, with the alleged GSAT paper leakage fraught with implications of privilege and prejudice.

We are happy that in this instance justice has not merely been an academic exercise, that redress has been made and the GSAT will not be a bitter memory of hard work not only gone unrewarded, but the question of personal integrity laid to rest.

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