Students from Georgetown have again dominated the charts at the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) 2023, with 95 of them landing in the top one per cent.
Based on the analysis of the results, this figure represented 50.2 per cent of students. Georgetown is considered Education District 11, and is calculated separately from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica).
However, Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) scooped up 17.9 per cent with 34 students, while Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) ranked third at 16.4 per cent with 31 students making this bracket.
Some 10 students from Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) accounted for 5.2 per cent of the top one per cent while Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) accounted for 3.7 per cent, with seven students.
Both Regions Five (Mahaica-Berbice) and Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) saw six students which accounted for 3.7 per cent of the top one per cent of performers.
No students from Regions One (Barima-Waini), Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) came in the top 1 per cent at the 2023 NGSA.
Some 15,273 students wrote the NGSA on May 3 and 4, 2023. Of this number, 287 were Spanish-speaking students. It is the first year special material was provided to cater to these students.
In terms of performance, some 3742 students scored in the first quartile, that is zero to 25 per cent. Another 3743 students scored within the second quartile of 25 to 50 per cent. In the third quartile, 3741 students scored between 50 and 70 per cent. In the fourth quartile, that is 75 to 100 per cent, 3741 students were in this bracket.
The overall pass rate for Mathematics was 39.87 per cent when compared to 34.77 per cent in 2022 – a significant improvement with upward mobility in candidates securing a perfect score.
The Science pass rate was 55.11 per cent this year – an upward trend from last year’s 46.45 per cent. More candidates obtained full marks than in the last few years. Zero scores and full scores have been reversed positively in significant proportions.
Meanwhile, English recorded a pass rate of 64.47 per cent. Last year, the pass rate was 64.75 per cent. The trend of candidates scoring zero remained relatively flat. There was a 469 per cent increase over 2022 in students scoring full marks in English.
For Social Studies, there was a 0.3 per cent decrease in the performance over 2022 results, standing at 58.57 per cent. More candidates also scored full marks.
Out of the 868 candidates who were awarded a place at a national school following the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA), 499 of them were from the public school system.
The statistics reflect that 57.4 per cent of NGSA students who secured places at Queen’s College, The Bishops’ High School, St Stanislaus College, St Rose’s High School, and St Joseph High School were from public schools.
Education Minister Priya Manickchand had commented that there is a low number of trained teachers in the hinterland, which creates a gap in the performance of students.
“The performance of the hinterland continues to not measure up to the performance on the coast. While we are seeing better, we have not been able to catch the gap there for a variety of reasons. The hinterland has the lowest number of trained teachers. While they are doing amazing work across the country, we see a direct correlation between trained teachers and the results,” she was quoted saying.
