This automatic promotion, which took effect on Monday 09 May, is widely applauded by all. But the problem is the management of the students in Grade 1. The parents of the Nunkessor Saddul School have sent a letter of complaint this very Monday.
The promoted students are those born between January and May 2015. About 4,000 students have undergone an assessment programme in Mathematics, English and French, for which the finals were held last week. This has ensured that these students do not miss a year.
The darker side of this good decision is the management of the students in Grade 1. In many schools, there are two Grade 1 classes but, in some schools, such as Nunkessor Saddul, the instruction from the relevant ministry is to group all the remaining pupils in one class. These parents deplore the fact that there are more than 40 students in this Grade and that there is a shortage of teachers for this Grade, as confirmed by the zone inspectors. The parents are worried about how the available teachers will manage the overcrowded classrooms, but above all, they fear the quality of the education their children will receive in these classes. These are new problems that are being added to the concerns about the effects of Covid 19 and the change of teachers in the middle of the curriculum.
The parents feel that the Minister has made the least suitable decision for the good of the students. They are asking for the transfer of teachers to be cancelled, for substitute teachers to be recruited to deal with the overcrowding in the first-year classes, and for the Deputy Headmaster to help set up a second classroom to accommodate a good half of the students, while waiting for a lasting solution from the Ministry of Education.
