Education Minister, Priya Manickchand has reminded students that they can excel in their studies, regardless of the secondary school in which they were placed.
She gave the assurance during the announcement of the results of the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) 2020.
“You can do as well as the Queen’s College students…You aim for the sky. But if you got schools like Anna Regina, who has topped the Caribbean more than once, New Amsterdam, schools in Linden and even schools in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), you do as well…You can do well wherever you go,” the Minister expressed.
Manickchand explained that the Government is striving to have the same quality of education across the country, which will enable children to access better education.
“We promised that our quality and standards in schools across this country will prove. We have no choice. Textbooks will be available. Teachers will be available. This is a placement exam, written not to say that whether you’re smart or not; written so that we can place you into a secondary school. Because up to now, we don’t have the equality we need across secondary schools. That will change.”
The Minister went on to say that the education sector has been consistently performing better – a trajectory which will continue in the following years. This has been evident since the Caribbean Examinations Council was involved in the crafting of the exam, providing stability and reducing fluctuations in the grades every year.
“Things that were put in place for a while will start seeing effects and result. If something good was started, it’s not going to stop…Any kind of stable measurement should not be producing that kind of irregularity in various subject areas, which means that our testing and evaluation prior to going to CXC was not consistent and that is why we contracted CXC. We went to CXC so that we could have consistent management and standardization of the setting of the exam,” she highlighted.
