The results from the first National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) mock examination which was written last week are currently being analysed with the aim of identifying weaknesses children have in the four subject areas of Mathematics, English Language, Science and Social Studies.
The Ministry of Education said on Friday that the subject Minister, Priya Manickchand, met with teachers and Regional Education Officers from the 11 Education Districts following the June 9th and 10th examination to discuss the experiences and what needs to be done moving forward.
Of the 14,300 students registered to write the NGSA in August, some 12,500 students participated in the first round of the mock examination with 2000 coming from the private school system.
The second NGSA mock examination for 2021 will be written on July 7 and 8, 2021. This will be held under full examination conditions except for those students who chose to write the examination at home. This option will not be available for the official NGSA to be written on August 4th and 5th, 2021.
All preparations are underway for the successful writing of the NGSA in August. The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has set the examination based on the consolidated curriculum that was prepared by the Ministry of Education and those Grade Four topics that usually feature in the NGSA.
From all indications, based on preliminary analysis of the results from the first mock exam and the feedback from teachers and Education Officers, the decision by the Ministry to only allow CXC to test on topics up to Grade Five was the best option to give the students a fair chance due to prevailing circumstances.
Further, the learning resources that were distributed to each Grade Six child in a study package including textbooks, notes and worksheets have proven to be an effective solution to assist our students as they prepare to write the examination. This coupled with other initiatives such as the NGSA Booster Programme being aired on the Guyana Learning Channel via television and YouTube along with the Quiz Me Platform on the Ministry’s website have greatly benefited students. As of Friday afternoon, some 103,000 quizzes have been taken on the platform which shows that students are “Practising to Perfection”.
Despite these gains in offering support to teachers and students, Grade Six teachers have indicated that they are experiencing difficulty when teaching some topics online, especially in the Mathematics subject area. The Ministry has taken note of this and has begun an exercise to identify how best teachers can be supported further with this specific challenge with the outcome being a better performance by our students.
The Ministry of Education said it will continue to engage all stakeholders to work together to keep the sector moving in the right direction for the benefit of every Guyanese.
