Poor NGSA Maths results, a matter of “grave national importance” – Cabinet

The Government is concerned at the declining results in Mathematics, especially as was evident in the results of the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) and as such, the issue has now engaged the attention of Cabinet, the Ministry of the Presidency said in a statement on Wednesday.
The statement said that Cabinet, during its Tuesday meeting, “deliberated as a matter of extreme urgency and grave national importance, [on] the unsatisfactory results in Mathematics nationwide” at the 2016 Grade Six exam.
“Cabinet considers this situation one of national urgency requiring its focused attention and commitment to finding adequate and appropriate solutions in the shortest possible time,” the statement added.
It said that as part of a plan for short and medium-term measures, Cabinet called on the Education Ministry and its technical advisers to identify all appropriate steps needed to remedy this situation.
“Those steps would include remedial training of teachers, better and more varied text books, more teaching aids and better use of technology in the delivery of education,” it said.
The Ministry of the Presidency statement added that for many, Guyana has consistently failed to achieve acceptable pass rates in Mathematics, an important core subject and the previous approach to addressing this issue was “inadequate”.
This year, the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) conducted NGSA for the first time and, according to the Government, the basis of assessment used by CXC was radically different from what was used previously by the Education Ministry, with an increased focus on reasoning and a decreased emphasis on retention.
“The new method to testing as implemented by CXC has exposed even more the weakness of the previous approach to education adopted by the Ministry of Education in previous years,” the Ministry said.
Guyana, like almost every other Caribbean country, continues to struggle in the area of Mathematics, with the likewise dismal results of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exam, administered by CXC.
As a matter of fact, Guyana’s pass rate at the 2016 CSEC Examinations declined from 45.07 per cent in 2015 to 38.37 per cent this year, after about three years of improvements.
Overall, the region’s performance in Mathematics saw a 13 per cent decrease. Candidates recorded a 44 per cent pass rate in Maths this year as opposed to a 57 per cent in 2015, according to CXC Registrar Glenroy Cumberbatch.