The Government will be providing a subsidy for secondary-level students to retake their exit exams this year, due to the challenges caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Dr Kasan Troupe, acting chief education officer in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, suggested that the disruptions created by the pandemic had led to less than impressive results for some students in subjects like mathematics.

“We would have provided in this year’s Budget, because of that, the subsidy for you to get the opportunity to sit those subjects again. This is just a special provision for this year, for those students, given the pandemic experience,” Troupe said as she addressed stakeholders during the Sixth-Form Pathway programme virtual town hall, hosted by the ministry last Thursday (November 4).

Troupe noted that the ministry provides a subsidy for students to sit four Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects – mathematics, English, one science subject, information technology and electronic document preparation and management (EDPEM).

“For those on the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), once you have the qualifying scores, you get up to eight CSEC subjects covered. We also pay for one of your National Vocational Qualifications of Jamaica (NVQJ) skilled exams at grade 11,” she said.

Troupe noted that the support would continue in the Sixth-Form Pathways programme where students will benefit from three subject subsidies for communication studies and two units of their choice.

The Sixth-Form Pathways is part of the ministry’s implementation of a seven-year high-school programme.

It will allow students to pursue a two-year course of study with alternative opportunities alongside the traditional sixth-form curriculum.

Troupe said all students who register for the programme will benefit from a grant of $17,000 and, if the pupil accesses the programme at a public tertiary institution, the ministry will pay a grant of $60,000.

Students who pursue the programme through a private tertiary institution will receive a grant of $80,000.

Troupe said that the preliminary cost for the Pathways programme is estimated at $1.5 billion.