Improvements in English, Science, Social Studies at NGSA

…Mathematics records a ‘“marginal” decline

The Education Ministry has announced improvements across three subject areas at the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) this year, with Mathematics showing a decline in performance.

Chief Education Officer, Marcel Hutson disclosed on Monday that statistics showed improvements in English, Social Studies and Science, while there was a marginal decline in Mathematics.
On July 1 and 2, some 14,032 students across Guyana sat the NGSA examination, in order to gain a place in the secondary education system.
The results showed that Social Studies improved across all regions, and 53 per cent of the students securing 50 per cent and over, as opposed to 39 per cent in 2019. All administrative regions also recorded improvements in the number of candidates passing English.
For Science, 44.1 per cent of the candidates gained 50 per cent and more, when compared to 39.4 per cent last year. In Mathematics, 39.4 per cent of students passed in comparison to 42 per cent in 2019.

“The Ministry of Education has continued its collaboration with the Caribbean Examinations Council to improve quality of all national primary grade assessments. Teachers, subject specialists and test development officers developed the test items with the technical guidance of the Caribbean Examinations Council,” Hutson shared.
Education Minister, Priya Manickchand reminded students that they can perform excellently at their respective secondary schools, regardless of rankings. She noted that schools outside of the top schools in Georgetown have emerged to produce top performers at the Caribbean Examination Council level. As such, encouragement was given to students to work continuously, despite where they are placed.
“You can do as well as the Queen’s College students…You aim for the sky but if you got schools like Anna Regina, who has topped the Caribbean more than once, New Amsterdam, schools in Linden and even schools in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), you do as well…You can do well wherever you go,” the Minister urged students.
Manickchand shared that they are striving to have the same quality of education across the country, which will enable children to access better education.
“We promised that our quality and standards in schools across this country will prove. We have no choice. Textbooks will be available. Teachers will be available. This is a placement exam, written not to say that whether you’re smart or not; written so that we can place you into a secondary school. Because up to now, we don’t have the equality we need across secondary schools. That will change,” the Minister added.
The Minister went on to say that the education sector has been consistently performing better – a trajectory which will continue in the following years. This has been evident since the Caribbean Examinations Council was involved in the crafting of the exam, providing stability and reducing fluctuations in the grades every year.
“Things that were put in place for a while will start seeing effects and result. If something good was started, it’s not going to stop…Any kind of stable measurement should not be producing that kind of irregularity in various subject areas, which means that our testing and evaluation prior to going to CXC was not consistent and that is why we contracted CXC. We went to CXC so that we could have consistent management and standardisation of the setting of the exam,” she highlighted.