Govt aiming for equal facilities, resources across secondary schools – Manickchand

Education Minister Priya Manickchand has given a strong commitment towards having equitable resources and facilities at every secondary school so that students can perform to their best ability despite their placement.
Speaking with the media on Friday, she underscored that the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) is required as a placement examination to enter the secondary programme. But with Government’s vision of equalising the bar throughout the country, it will not matter where children are placed since they will access the same resources.

“NGSA is something that we have to sit, something that we have to write. Not because we want to test children and find out who is bright and who is not. It is a placement exam. We have to find out where to put children…We are currently examining how we can ensure that it doesn’t matter which high school you get. In this Government, I’m telling you we are closer rather than further from the place of saying to you it doesn’t matter which high school you get, you will be able to do as well as if you got the Queen’s College,” the Minister outlined.
The equity would come in the form of adequate laboratories and facilities, trained teachers, and study material as any other school. This, she noted, can impact how students perform at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) level.
“We’re trying to work to do that, to make sure that there is equality of service, of trained teachers, of facility, of labs across the high school setup. So, it doesn’t matter which high school you get. You can do well and you can perform well. [Queen’s College] is 180 years. We can’t make another high school 180 years old. There is tradition and then there is service, quality, resources, facility and if we equalise that we give as resources, then it wouldn’t matter anymore which high school you got.”
Throughout the pandemic, the Minister revealed that authorities were able to evaluate the education system to determine if the current strategies work.
While the Grades Two and Four examination was birthed to determine whether students are literate, she said considerations are being made as to whether it should be continued. For 2020 and 2021, a decision was taken to cancel the Grades Two, Four and Nine examinations.
“COVID also gave us a really nice opportunity to look at ‘were we doing things robotically, routinely, what was intended and are we getting the effect of that intention’…The Grades Two and Four started out because we wanted to make sure our children were literate. Have we seen an increase in the level of literacy because of those two exams or did they become just two exams? There’s some of those things that we’re currently examining in the Ministry,” Manickchand positioned.
Since mid-March last year, schools have been closed as a measure to ease the spread of the coronavirus. Online platforms and worksheets were enabled as the new tools to reach students. For now, only Grades 10 to 12 and the technical vocation students are allowed for in-class activities. (G12)