The Ministry of Education is set to introduce a series of new and expanded interventions aimed at improving outcomes at the 2027 National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA), following this year’s record-breaking performance in which 20 students achieved the highest possible scores.
Speaking on the Starting Point Podcast on Sunday, Minister of Education Sonia Parag said the ministry intends to build on the strategies that contributed to the historic results by introducing earlier interventions, strengthening teacher training and expanding access to digital learning resources.
She said several initiatives implemented over the past year led to significant improvements across subject areas, with mathematics showing particularly encouraging gains.
She further noted that mathematics has traditionally been a challenging subject, not only in Guyana but across the Caribbean, prompting the ministry to introduce targeted support programmes for both students and teachers.
One of the key interventions was the introduction of maths stints, specialised learning sessions that brought together pupils from several schools to receive additional instruction from experienced mathematics teachers.
The programme proved highly successful, with strong participation from the students and positive feedback from parents.
“I truly believe that the maths stint was successful, as well as the training of the teachers in mathematics,” the minister said.
The ministry plans to begin the maths intervention as soon as the new school year starts rather than waiting until the months leading up to the examination.
Minister Parag explained that the initiative will continue to serve clusters of schools, allowing students from multiple communities to benefit from specialist teaching.
Alongside the expanded maths sessions, teachers will receive additional professional development focusing on strengthening the delivery of key mathematical concepts.
“We want to make sure that when we are teaching these concepts, it’s teaching to understand and not just teaching to pass an exam,” she said.
The ministry is also introducing targeted literacy interventions after recently completing literacy assessments for pupils in Grades Two and Four.
The minister acknowledged public concerns about students now entering Grade Six who would not have benefited from the earlier assessments.
To address this gap, she said the ministry will implement a short-term literacy assessment programme for current Grade Five pupils before they enter their NGSA year.
The assessments will help identify children experiencing difficulties with reading comprehension and interpreting examination questions, enabling teachers to provide targeted support before the examinations.
Another major component of the ministry’s strategy is the expansion of the Digital School initiative.
The platform, which was piloted during the past academic year, will be further developed to provide students across Guyana with greater access to quality educational content, regardless of where they live.
The Digital School will offer lessons, revision materials and past examination papers, giving students opportunities to reinforce classroom learning independently.
The ministry also plans to increase awareness of the platform among schools and communities to ensure more pupils take advantage of the available resources.
Beyond preparations for NGSA, the minister said the government is pursuing long-term reforms to strengthen foundational learning across the education system.
These include nationwide numeracy and literacy assessments.
She explained that the assessments will serve as diagnostic tools. They, she said, will allow educators to identify learning gaps at an early stage and provide targeted interventions for pupils who require additional support.
She said strengthening foundational literacy and numeracy from the earliest grades will reduce the need for short-term remedial measures later in a child’s education.
“We definitely have to work on long-term solutions from the bottom up,” the minister said. [DPI]
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