THE COMMON ENTRANCE EXAM (11-Plus) is not the end-all and
be all-of a primary school

student's life.

That's why principal of Garrison Secondary School Matthew Farley,
a former veteran primary school teacher, has warned parents
against making their children who wrote the exam feel as though they had "arrived".

"The Barbados Secondary Schools Entrance Examination is only the first of many hurdles, it is the first of many goals that your child will have to pursue.

"It has been my observation that children who are over celebrated relax and lose momentum when they reach secondary schools," Farley said on yesterday's edition
of Educator's Forum on
Voice of Barbados.

Different experience

He said the secondary school experience "almost required children to start from scratch" and was a "completely different experience" parents should prepare them for as they made the transition.

"Celebrate, yes, excessive celebration, no. The Barbados Secondary Schools Entrance Examination is not a diploma,
it is not an associate degree.
It is just an exam for transfer
to secondary education. It is not
the end, but the beginning of another phase of your child's education," he said. (DS)