Manickchand calls on Govt to immediately disclose changes to National Grade Six Assessment

PPP/C Member of Parliament and former Minister of Education, Mrs Priya Manickchand, today slammed the APNU/AFC Government over its non-disclosure of the planned changes in relation to the upcoming National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA).

The following is the full statement issued by the PPP/C MP moments ago: 

It has come to my attention that the Ministry of Education in Guyana intends to change the manner in which the National Grade Six Assessment, or a part thereof, is going to be written and marked. This change will begin and occur at the 2016 exams, which are scheduled to be written on the 27th and 28th April 2016, just three short weeks away.

Up to today’s date the Government has failed, refused and/or neglected to inform all the relevant students, parents and teachers about these changes that are to be made. What precisely are the changes? Are our young children going to learn about these changes when they enter the examination room? Can they be expected to do their best in these conditions?

This type of lazy, contemptuous governance is what the nation is coming to expect of this incompetent government. In this instance, however, this is not acceptable, as it can severely, adversely affect the lives of our most valuable resource, our children.

I believe these changes are the ones the PPP/C government had begun to put in place and had publicly spoken of, but these changes were never meant to be a secret, hidden from the children, their teachers and parents and sprung upon them as a surprise.

We call on the Government immediately to fully disclose what the changes will be, when they are intended to take effect and for immediate and public, widespread instructions and information as to how a student may best comply with these changes by publishing samples, infomercials etc, so as that our children can be assessed for what they actually know and not for how quickly they can adjust to secretive, even if well intentioned, changes.