Govt working to ensure all schools meet same standard – Parag

…assures “your child is no less smart” because they did not get a national school
…Digital School to play a bigger role this year onwards

The Government is actively working to ensure every school meets the same standard, Education Minister Sonia Parag has said, assuring parents that “your child is no less smart” because they did not gain admission to a national school.
Guyana recorded its best-ever performance at the 2026 National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA), with 20 pupils achieving the highest possible mark of 484.52, earning a place at Queens College.
During the Starting Point podcast on Sunday, Minister Parag attributed this success to the Government’s targeted interventions.
“I can only really attribute that to interventions that were made by the Government; deliberate planning for this particular sector, ensuring children would have had access to schools; resources that were available, such as textbooks; and getting them the finances that they would need to be able to attend school, which would be the ‘Because We Care’ cash grant, giving meals and so many other things, ensuring that we have trained teachers,” she noted.
A total of 15,706 students sat this year’s assessment. The individual pass rates for Mathematics in particular improved to 59.8 per cent.
Parag believes this is as a result of Mathematics intervention initiatives such as the Math tents and the ramping up of training for teachers both on the coastland and in the hinterland.
The Math tents are set up in local communities across all educational districts to provide free, in-person tutoring and targeted exam preparation for students.
“I think that that contributed heavily to the improved scores that we saw for Mathematics,” Minister Parag expressed, noting that the Government plans to expand this initiative in order to improve the performances at NGSA 2027.
“You will see from the time school rolls out that we’re going to be doing the Math tents and we’re going to be working along with the teachers in areas that, perhaps concepts of Mathematics that we believe need strengthening in for teachers so that they would be able to deliver that better in the classroom,” the Education Minister explained.
…and also making sure that when we are teaching these concepts that it’s teaching to understand and not just teaching to pass an exam. Because I think that’s really, really important,” she added.
Another key intervention is the literacy and numeracy assessments of students, which Minister Parag noted, will help in their comprehension and interpretation of exam questions.
In fact, she argued that the goal is not to help students achieve higher exam scores but to prepare them to become successful individuals after leaving school.
“We want for you to be able to have a good understanding of the knowledge that would have been imparted upon you during your school years,” Minister Parag said.
In this regard, the Education Minister emphasised that gaining admission to one of the national schools is not possible for every student.
“While we have our national schools and everyone one, 15,000 and something children are aiming to get one of these national schools, and there are only so many children that you can fit into these national schools,” she admitted.
But Minister Parag explained that the Government is investing heavily “to bring up certain schools, different schools, up to a standard so children will be able to have that sort of equitable distribution of resources, that they would have equal access to education on a whole”.
In fact, the Education Minister emphasised that “your child is no less smart; they are not devalued in any way, or their worth does not diminish in any way because they did not get a national school.”
“The scores are still so high, and because of the competitiveness of our students and what we’re seeing year after year, it’s tighter in terms of the percentage…so you’re seeing, like within three per cent, the national schools have been snapped up,” she noted.
Moreover, Minister Parag highlighted that based on the results, more primary schools are performing better.
“So, you’re seeing schools too that are coming, that are now placed in top positions that you wouldn’t have seen a couple years ago,” she posited.

Digital School
Meanwhile, the Education Minister noted that the Guyana Digital School will play a more important role from this year onwards.
The platform, which was piloted during the past academic year, will be further developed to provide students across Guyana with greater access to quality educational content, regardless of where they live.
The Digital School will offer lessons, revision materials and past examination papers, giving students opportunities to reinforce classroom learning independently.
The ministry also plans to increase awareness of the platform among schools and communities to ensure more pupils take advantage of the available resources.