2024 Barbados Secondary Schools’ Entrance Examination (BSSEE) Conducted Smoothly for 3,011 Students: Minister of Education

Minister of Education Kay McConney is happy with the smooth process in which the 2024 Barbados Secondary Schools’ Entrance Examination (BSSEE) took place today for the 3 011 students sitting the examination across the island.

Speaking at Princess Margaret Secondary School, McConney, who was flanked by the school’s principal Veronica Annel-Agard and Senior Education Officer Patricia Warner, said that everything was satisfactory in St Philip.

“We have completed our tour of the facilities,” she began “and we are generally satisfied with what is happening in the prep room making sure things are secure and there is proper management and protocols around what is happening with the papers there.

“Miss Warner has checked in with the invigilators to make sure that they are satisfied and I must tell you from our conversations with the invigilators that they received the papers on time, they were properly instructed in advance and they had enough time to settle the children.”

Students and guardians gather outside the Princess Margaret Secondary School today.

The Minister said every effort was made to facilitate those students with special requests.

“On occasion we have had to make accommodations for students that are blind, but this year, we do not have any blind sitters. I just want to say ‘so far so good’! Things are moving smoothly, I know the parents are anxious by the gate, but the students look settled and ready and I am happy with the way things have gone so far.”

Standing in her first BSSEE, the school’s first ever female appointed principal, Annel-Agard, said she was thankful to her deputy principal for the trouble-free morning.

“It is going smoothly. I must say I am grateful to my (acting) deputy Miss Lynette Holder. She is the one who has organised everything and she has a wonderful staff who were very cooperative and as you heard the minister say, we are pleased with how things are going. Papers were submitted on time, the students were all ushered, everyone was comfortable and I think things are going smoothly.”

One hundred and ninety-eight students sat the BSSEE at Princess Margaret Secondary School this morning which went ahead with no issues. Those students came from five schools – Bayleys Primary, Hilda Skeene Primary, St Catherine’s Primary, Reynold Weekes Primary and St Martin’s Mangrove, as well as three home-schooled students.

Prior to the beginning of the examination, the atmosphere outside the school’s gates and in the car park by the Six Roads Polyclinic was very relaxed as children made light conversation with their schoolmates and neighbouring schools creating a myriad of colours against the hue of browns and yellows which make up the colour palette of St Philip’s sole secondary school.