Community Members

Trinidadian playwright (and my former profressor) Tony Hall

Much like students, teachers, and politicians, the larger Trinidadian community had plenty of opinions to share on the matter. A writer in Trinidad named Nazma Muller launched a petition to abolish the SEA where she describes the distress of parents and schoolchildren (Muller, 2019). Community members have been the most vocal on the issue, which comes as no surprise since they were most likely former students or parents themselves. They have called the exam damaging, elitist, divisive, traumatic, neocolonialist, and called for its abolition and boycotts among themselves. Here are just a few of many posts on Facebook as they also dominate op-eds in Trinidadian news outlets. Thus, nobody is excluded – the matter concerns all members of Trinidadian society.

Trinidadian artist Dave Williams Facebook user Jill Lian Goddard