Ed­u­ca­tion stake­hold­ers say they are con­cerned about the type of ques­tions that ap­pear in cer­tain sec­tions of the Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment (SEA) ex­am­i­na­tion.

Speak­ing at a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee (JSC) of Par­lia­ment Fri­day on So­cial Ser­vices and Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion: An in­quiry in­to the un­der­per­for­mance at the na­tion’s schools and the ad­e­qua­cy of the Stu­dent Sup­port Ser­vices Di­vi­sion (SSSD), Pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Pri­ma­ry Schools Prin­ci­pals’ As­so­ci­a­tion (NAPSPA) Monique Sci­pio-Daniel said she no­ticed a change in the struc­ture of the place­ment ex­am­i­na­tion.

“I used to teach a SEA class for sev­er­al years. At that point, it was sim­ply a place­ment ex­am. Chil­dren wrote the ex­ams and passed for the school of their choice, or if not they were sent to a school in their area. But what we have seen over the years, it’s al­most as if it’s a com­pe­ti­tion to see which writer can write the best ques­tion or the hard­er ques­tion for the chil­dren,” she ex­plained.