MORE than 700 students who were registered to take the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) exam this year stand to repeat grade six in the next school year which begins in September.

The bulk of the students – 739 – missed February's sitting of the Grade 6 Ability Test and subsequently asked to be deferred for next year's test.

Students sit ability, competence-based and performance tests in grades five and six, with the final scores and school placements being determined from a composite of all three grades.

Grade 6 students sat the ability test in February, but the competence-based and performance components were cancelled as a result of the novel coronavirus.

As it had previously explained would be the case, the ministry outlined yesterday that in the absence of the two missed tests, students were placed according to the previously earned grades only.