Veteran educator Jeff Broomes has pointed fingers at principals for allowing the controversial Computer Science pretest to be administered at their schools.But the head of the Barbados Association of Principals of Public Secondary Schools (BAPPS) has defended his members, saying they had no control over the administration of the test that was done at five secondary schools earlier this week.Broomes, who served as principal at the Alexandra and Parkinson Memorial Secondary Schools, argued that the headmasters were more to blame than Minister of Education Kay McConney.Speaking on Down to Brasstacks call-in programme on VOB on Friday morning, Broomes said he was disappointed that the principals did not reject the test which inappropriately quizzed first-form students on their sexuality, gender identity, substance use and abuse, as well as personal information about their parents, among other issues.The pretest was administered by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as part of a Code.org project. The IDB has accepted full responsibility for not removing several questions as requested by the Ministry of Education, and Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw said the Ministry accepted responsibility for the test reaching the students.
