Education Ministry’s NGSA booster to start on May 17

…parents urged to join today’s launch

The Education Ministry will be introducing its booster initiative for the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) on Monday, allowing students to access key material for the examinations.
The booster lessons will feature topics from every subject area that could appear on the examination papers. Education Minister Priya Manickchand had noted that along with airings on the Guyana Learning Channel, the lessons would also be available on YouTube, Facebook, cable and other broadcast networks.
It will be launched today, and parents have been urged to sign onto the Zoom link, where they will be guided on how to access these classes for their children. The launch starts at 10:00h and can be accessed with the meeting ID 951 5990 4892 and passcode 908538.
Since classrooms have been closed until otherwise decided, the additional virtual platform is expected to boost learning among students sitting the assessment this year and providing additional practice.
In a recent video briefing, Minister Manickchand stated, “We are doing videos that will consciously reflect what is in that curriculum and looking at topics that are high frequency on the exam papers and doing videos for those. We think that if we do these videos, if we look at these videos that will be aired on the Learning Channel, YouTube and various forums that you can look at, you will see what you need to see.”
She had emphasised that the resources were created using local teachers, so that children could understand more easily.
“It’s bringing information that students would be expected to know from the curriculum to be able to successfully sit these exams…There’s going to be a play and a replay, and then a component of this is the teachers are going to take you through exam-type questions and the type of answers that will be expected of you.”
The Education Ministry had announced that the dates set for the NGSA are August 4 and August 5, 2021. The placement examination will consist of papers one and two for four subjects: English, Science, Social Studies and Maths. This year, some 14,300 Grade Six students will be writing the assessment – an increase over last year, which saw 14,032 candidates writing the exam.
In efforts to set the candidates into exam mode, two sets of mock exams will be administered prior to the final national assessment. To guide preparations for the assessment, teachers are to be given a consolidated curriculum, which was crafted by international consultants and officials at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD).
Each Grade Six student attending a public school would receive a care package which will contain past papers and all the requisite textbooks. The textbooks are to be returned to the Ministry after the students complete their exams.
Since the closure of primary schools last year owing to the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in Guyana, their only reopening was to facilitate last year’s NGSA sitting. It was facilitated under strict distancing and sanitisation protocols in order to protect students. Sinks and other hygiene units were established prior to the exams. (G12)