Recognising that there are limitations pertaining to the number of subjects a student can sit at the Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC), the Education Ministry will be enabling cross-streaming for all national and A-list schools.
Making this announcement on Monday was Education Minister, Priya Manickchand.
“That memo is coming out shortly where all the national schools and List A schools will allow cross-streaming. If someone is doing the science subjects and want to cross-stream two art subjects, it is going to be allowed on the timetable,” she explained.
She zeroed in specifically on The Bishops’ High School, which had placed limitations on the number of subjects a child could write at CSEC examination for many years, causing a migration of students to Queen’s College.
“These schools are equal and they’re doing well. But every year at the placement exam, we would get a remarkable number of students from the Bishops’ High School trying to get into Queen’s College. I was very perturbed to learn that there were limitations here placed on students with, I believe, the best intention but which limitations had passed their usefulness.”
Across the country, less than 250 students every year write 12 or more subjects at CSEC. In every country, Manickchand said there are students who are academically gifted and therefore, there should be no confinement should they be desirous of pursuing a larger number of subjects.
She underscored, “Some children want more. We do not, in the Ministry of Education, encourage students to engage in only academia and only writing large number of subjects. I believe it can take away from a student but I believe that some students can and where students can, they should be accommodated and allowed to…If you want to, you should be allowed to.”
Students in Grade 10 will also be allowed to sit Mathematics, English Language, English Literature, a foreign language and potentially, EDPM should they pass the criteria. They will not have to repeat these in Grade 11, so as to reduce the workload in their final year.
For 2023, Alex Muntaz of the Anna Regina Multilateral School (ARMS) clinched a remarkable 23 Grade Ones and Four Grade Twos at the CSEC examinations, marking the second consecutive year that that school topped the examinations.
SBAs
Meanwhile, the School Based Assessment (SBA) requirement was also placed under the microscope, where about 18 are required for one science subject. While the intention of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) was to enable a practical approach to learning, Manickchand said the effect comes down to ‘doing it for the sake of doing it’.
“There’s no practical exposure that may cause and foster a deeper love for the subject or encourages more people to go into the science stream. That effect that CXC intended was being lost.”
The Education Minister met with Heads of Departments of some secondary schools and it was decided that science SBAs will begin Grade Nine.
“We know that has implications for staff, supervision and marking. We’re addressing all of that. You’re going to see some of those major changes coming about,” she promised.
The Education Ministry has embarked on an agenda of creating ‘The Guyanese Child’ – meaning that children should emerge from the school system both academically strong and able to contribute to society with their talents.
Work is ongoing to ensure that each child pursues one sport, one musical instrument, one foreign language, one TVET subject and end their educational journey with a strong sense of volunteerism.
“We’ve begin trying to roll that programme out,” the Minister announced.
The next few years, she underlined that Guyana will change drastically and students need to determine how they will fit into this paradigm shift. Now, all textbooks for every subject have been available for every child – a first time initiative for the country.
The teachers were told, “The system is quickly moving to a place where accountability in this noble profession is going to have to be a hallmark. Promotions must be based not only on longevity but on performance. Sustainability in the system has to be based not on the possibility of a strike happening because a teacher was dismissed but on the value added to the children.”
