Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter
THE MINISTRY of Education and Youth says it is continuing to release the grades of students whose Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) results had been withheld because they had not submitted birth certificates, and is urging parents to come forward.
The results can be collected from the Education Ministry's six regional offices.
Up to last week, the Education Ministry had not released, to schools, the results of students without birth certificates. Some regional offices were finding it difficult to deal with the increasing number of parents visiting their premises demanding their children's GSAT scores.
BIRTH CERTIFICATES
Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson told The Gleaner yesterday that, while the results were not to be released without submission of birth certificates, the ministry had taken the decision to make them public.
However, she noted that the onus was now on the parents to get the birth certificates by September in order for their children to be registered in high school.
Contacted yesterday, Dr. Fitz Russell, regional director in the Ministry of Education Region Six, said his office began releasing the results last week. He noted that his region had released 620 of the 1,400 results.
Dr. Russell had urged parents to visit the office and get the results as soon as possible, noting that the processing of the results is putting a strain on his officers who could be doing other work.
Parents with queries concerning GSAT can contact the Ministry of Edu-cation's regional offices at the customer service hotline numbers below:
Region 1: Kingston, St. Andrew and Western St. Thomas - 502-5927/5928/5932
Region 2: Eastern St. Thomas, Portland, Eastern and Southern St. Mary - 993-5912
Region 3: Western and Central St. Mary, St. Ann, Trelawny - 917-8442
Region 4: St. James, Hanover, Westmoreland - 1-888-9919135
Region 5: St. Elizabeth, Manchester, North Clarendon - 625-2219
Region 6: Clarendon and St. Catherine - 745-3695
