Students who recently completed the National Grade Six Assessment examination are being prepped for secondary school during a five-day interactive camp at the New Campbellville Secondary School.
Students will be exposed to learning guidelines and other activities
The Students Transition Camp was organised by the Education Ministry to prepare upcoming Grade Seven students for the academic year ahead. Those that were targeted were the ones who did not perform exceptionally at the NGSA.
Education official, Acklima Pearce stated that they will be introduced to a number of subjects, etiquette training and life skills. This initiative commenced after a careful analysis of the NGSA results and adds to the Transition Class that was established back in 2010 to provide children with an extra year to make academic progress.
Pearce expounded, “Looking at the analysis, [the Ministry] saw it fitting for a special programme to be set up for those students who were not able to attain a score to enter into the normal secondary school. In September 2010, the six-year Transition Class was established in ten regions in Guyana. These students who were not able to gain marks for the five-year programme will now be given the opportunity to attend the same secondary schools but will now do the six-year programme.”
During the week of activities, students will be exposed to mathematics, English, phonics, reading, art, physical education, dance, music, etiquette and environmental health.
Meanwhile, Deputy Education Officer (Secondary) Sherwyn Blackman noted that while special emphasis will be placed on life skills, the main aim is to achieve better performances in these schools. He acknowledged that progress has been observed through the Transition Class to produce better CSEC grades.
“For us, we believe that the programme has been generating the kind of results, that even though the students might have started with what we will term a below average mark, many of the students that have come through the transition programme were able to write the CSEC examinations six years later and they were just as successful as students who went to mainstream schools,” the DEO stated.
Along with curbing low performances, the Ministry is looking at providing additional resources and better facilities for learning.
During the last NGSA examinations, only mathematics saw an increase in students who would have passed with 50 per cent or more. Poor performances in English, science and social studies persisted. English dropped from 60.6 per cent to 57.4 per cent. The same followed for science with figures decreasing from 46.8 per cent to 46.4 per cent and social studies with 46.1 per cent to 39 per cent.
