The National Grade Six Assessment began yesterday with pupils writing papers one and two for English language and Science, in the morning and afternoon respectively.
Of the 14, 400 candidates, 95% turned up to write their examination in school at the 503 examination centres across Guyana based on statistics submitted yesterday by each Department of Education in the eleven Education Districts. The Ministry of Education commits to searching for and re-integrating the remaining 5% of pupils who did not turn up to write the examination.
Thirty-three of the 503 examination centres are new and were established across the eleven education districts to facilitate candidates writing the examination. This was done to make the lives of children and their parents easier by eliminating the burden of having to travel long distances to get to their respective centres which were not the schools they attended.
In addition to the examination centres, the Ministry of Education has established emergency centres that can accommodate those candidates who may have tested positive for COVID-19 or are in quarantine.
This was done for the 2021 CSEC and CAPE examinations whereby COVID-19 positive candidates were accommodated and allowed to write their examinations in a separate building.
The NGSA will conclude today, August 5, 2021, with Mathematics and Socials Studies being written.
Lead by Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand several Education Officers including the Chief Education Officer, Dr. Marcel Hutson visited examination centres to observe the process and to ensure that all established guidelines and protocols were in place and being followed.
Yesterday’s examinations were completed without any incident or issues arising and the Ministry of Education is confident that this will be repeated today as the examinations come to a close.
Candidates will continue to write their examinations under strict COVID-19 guidelines. These measures include the sanitizing and washing of hands before entering examination buildings, the wearing of the recommended face mask, observing and maintaining social distancing at all times and the cleaning and sanitizing of buildings and furniture.
This year’s NGSA is being written at a time when Guyana, like the rest of the world, is in the middle of a pandemic. The Ministry of Education is proud of all Grade Six pupils for writing their examinations despite the challenges such as being out of school for more than a year along with the many issues related to online learning.
We are also thankful for the teachers who stepped up and delivered under conditions that they have never faced before. The Ministry applauds their willingness and commitment to serve their students and we look forward to working with those teachers to educate the future generations of students.
Their efforts together with the several interventions the Ministry had implemented to assist our teachers and pupils to prepare for the examination must be commended.
Each Grade Six pupil was given a study package containing social studies and science notes, worksheets for the four subjects, past papers from the last five years and 12 textbooks on the four subject areas of English, mathematics, science and social studies.
A consolidated curriculum was produced for Grade Six teachers to use as they prepared their pupils.
The Ministry also launched a Quiz Me Platform on its website which offers students the opportunity to practice NGSA level questions and be provided with the results instantaneously. The NGSA Booster Programme was also launched whereby local teachers are recorded teaching the topics which can feature on the examination. These videos are aired on the Guyana Learning Channel according to a timetabled schedule and are also available for streaming on the Guyana Learning Channels Youtube channel.
All of these resources were made available at no cost to parents, pupils and teachers and we are confident that they were used as much as possible to help children prepare for this examination. We wish all of the candidates the very best in their examinations.
