THE Ministry of Education will today open its Region One office in Kingston between 10:00 am and 3:00 pm today to continue issuing results to parents who sat the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) in March without a birth certificate.

At the same time, the ministry said it had planned to open late yesterday evening to process results for students in its Region Three office in St Ann.

Frustrated parents gather at the entrance to a section of the Ministry's Region One office at Heroes Circle in Kingston yesterday, demanding to see their children's exam results. (Photo: Karl McLarty)

According to the ministry, checks with its other regional offices revealed that except for minor hiccups, most parents who turned up for their children's results were processed.

The education ministry was forced to work overtime yesterday after scores of frustrated parents converged on its Region One office in Kingston and its Region Three office, demanding the placement results for their children who took the GSAT.

The ministry on Thursday announced that 48,733 students had been placed and issued the results to schools islandwide, but several students in Region One - Kingston and St Andrew and parts of St Thomas, and Region Three, which covers schools in St Mary, St Ann and Trelawny were not among that number.

At the Region One office at Heroes Circle in Kingston, parents complained bitterly that some schools said they had no record of the examination results because their children's birth certificates were not submitted, as required. They said the schools had indicated that the ministry would be withholding the results until the document was submitted.

Some of the parents, however, accused the ministry and the schools of being inefficient, arguing that they had in fact submitted the birth certificates and could not understand why they were being told they had not done so.

"Is two months them hold on to this (birth certificate).," one woman told the Observer while holding a copy of the document aloft to murmurs of agreement from other parents.
It was, however, a long wait yesterday for persons when a number system, which had been set up to deal with the large crowd failed, and was replaced by an alphabetical system.

When that too failed, security personnel reverted to the numeric system, drawing further protest from the parents.
"Is just because them nuh organised," said one parent, who gave her name only as Latoya. She said that she had been waiting from 9:00 am and was still there after 1:00 in the afternoon. Several other parents said their children were anxious and distressed over not knowing the schools that they had been placed.