On the eve of one of Barbados’ most high-stakes national academic assessments, the leader of a prominent child advocacy organisation has doubled down on his longstanding demand to permanently eliminate the controversial Common Entrance Examination, while issuing urgent guidance to parents to reduce anxiety for their children in the final hours before testing begins.
Thousands of primary school students across the island are set to sit the Barbados Secondary School Entrance Examination (BSSEE) – widely known as the Common Entrance Exam – when it kicks off on Tuesday morning. But Dr Anthony Cummins, president of the Centre for Solutions and Influence (CSI), an organisation focused on supporting vulnerable children and strengthening paternal bonds, told Barbados TODAY he remains a firm opponent of the current assessment model, even as the Ministry of Education moves forward with administering the 2026 iteration of the test.
Previous government commitments have promised the test would be scrapped, with a previous announcement naming 2025 as the final year of the exam. Despite those pledges, the 2026 assessment is proceeding as scheduled this week. That broken promise has reinvigorated Cummins’ campaign against the high-stakes test.
“I am one that is ready and waiting to run all around Barbados celebrating the abolition of this Common Entrance Examination,” Cummins said, arguing that the one-day, make-or-break assessment fuels deep social and academic division among young people and their families across the country.
Instead of measuring a child’s eligibility for secondary school placement on the result of a single high-pressure sitting, Cummins has proposed a full transition to a continuous matriculation system. Under this model, students would progress to secondary education based on their consistent academic performance across their entire primary school career, rather than one day of testing that can make or break their future placement.
Cummins emphasized that the current system imposes an unmanageable emotional and psychological toll on young students, harming their mental wellbeing before they even enter secondary education. To back his argument, he pointed to the academic and professional success of his own son, who is now a statistician working on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. His son progressed from first grade all the way through secondary school based on year-round academic performance, never having to sit a high-stakes exit exam, Cummins explained. “It just shows you the importance of why you can get away from this exam,” he added.
With testing set to begin imminently, Cummins shifted his focus to immediate, practical guidance for parents and educators to support students in the final stretch. He issued a clear call to end harmful behaviors that ramp up student anxiety, including verbal abuse and the common habit of comparing current candidates to older siblings or peers who earned placement at elite institutions like Harrison College or Queen’s College.
“Stop the comparison of other students,” he urged. Telling a child they “better try and pass for a big school” only fuels unnecessary nervousness, he said, which “results in a whole lot of travesty.” Cummins noted that far too many children face verbal reproach from parents as late as the night before the exam, over missed practice problems or underperformance on mock tests – a pattern he called deeply counterproductive to good performance on test day.
To help students build a calm, supportive environment ahead of the exam, Cummins outlined a series of simple, actionable steps for parents. First, he advised cutting back on unnecessary pressure entirely, avoiding any last-minute cramming or criticism that could trigger negative reactions. He emphasized the critical need for students to get adequate sleep: parents should require children to put away their tablets and get to bed early, so they can wake up rested and mentally prepared for the day.
On exam morning, he warned against overfeeding children, which can cause discomfort and distract from their focus. He also urged families to leave for exam centers well ahead of the start time, to give students time to acclimate to the testing space rather than rushing in at the last minute disorganized and stressed.
As young people prepare to enter exam rooms across the country, Cummins reminded the public that a child’s inherent value can never be measured by a single test score. He called on parents to build a broad, healthy support network that includes extended family members – grandparents, aunts, uncles – and teachers, all working together to prioritize the child’s wellbeing over test results.
Specifically, he urged compassion after the exam concludes, regardless of how a student thinks they performed. “Don’t go beating your children because they may say to you that they didn’t finish the paper,” he said. “That is the time that you should love up on them. That is the time that you should embrace them and let them know this is not the end of the world.”
For Cummins, even as the exam remains a reality for this year’s cohort of students, the most important priority is protecting children’s mental and emotional health. “Pressure creates stress and stress can cause the child to be sick,” he noted.