Addressing baseless claims about NGSA results

Dear Editor,
The Ministry of Education has noted yet another irresponsible and reckless statement from a political candidate of the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party regarding the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) results.
Ms Tabitha Sarabo-Halley has alleged that because there have been requests for reviews of marks, something was amiss with the NGSA results. Every exam system that is responsible provides for the opportunity for review. And every year, there are requests for reviews.
The number of review requests this year has remained fairly constant. For example, there were 258 review requests in 2020, 261 in 2021, 241 in 2022, 185 in 2023, 267 requests in 2024, and for 2025, there were 257 review requests. There was nothing unusual, therefore, in this year’s requests for reviews.
Ms Tabitha Sarabo-Halley may have been following her leader when he alleged that the NGSA results showed a decline in performance when the reality was the exact opposite of that ignorant claim.
This year, Guyana recorded the best ever NGSA results, with every single subject trending upward in every regard. In fact, the country moved from 49 per cent of our children passing with 50 per cent or more in 2020 to 64 per cent of our children passing with 50 per cent or more in 2025.
This didn’t happen by accident but because of the conscious investments made in building schools, training teachers, providing textbooks, school feeding, the Because We Care Cash Grant, the Teachers Resources Grant, making access to reinforcement through the learning material on the Guyana Learning Channel universal, etc.
The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) sets, manages, and marks this assessment, and to attempt to bring the results into disrepute just because of ignorance of the system or for cheap political gain is to bring into disrepute the qualifications of every single child and adult who has received CXC certification over the years.
This has serious consequences for our young people locally and internationally as they set about acquiring jobs or tertiary education.
We call on political parties and candidates to try to be responsible and decent in their claims and to try not to harm the children and young people of this country in their quest for political office.

Ministry of
Education,
Public Relations
Department