Results of the recent National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) examinations have revealed that more children in Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne) have failed the exams than those who have passed.
Region Six Chairman David Armogan
Although there has been countrywide improvement in three subject areas this year (Science, Language, Social Studies), the situation is slightly worrying for officials in Region Six, as the overall pass rate there is below 50 per cent.
Of the 1775 pupils who wrote the examination in Region Six, only 809 attained marks in excess of 400, which represents a 46 per cent pass rate.
More worrying is the fact that only 15 of the Region’s 55 primary schools have received at least a 50 per cent pass rate.
The Plegt-Anker and Schepmoed Primary schools, with one and two pupils respectively, are the only two schools to secure 100 percent pass rate.
Gangaram Primary has been the top performer with a 92 per cent pass rate, with 12 of the 13 students getting over 400 marks; while All Saints Primary had 70 of the 93 students attaining over 400 marks, giving it a 75 per cent pass rate.
Berbice Islamic School had seven out of 10 students gaining a pass rate, thus recording a 70 per cent pass rate for the school.
At one school, only 39 of the 97 students had passed the exams, while another school had 34 passes from the 82 entries. There were two schools in the Region with no passes at the exams this year.
Regional Chairman David Armogan says the results are disappointing, but noted that much more work has to be done at the primary school level.
“This is to make sure that, in the future, our children can achieve a higher grade. This is what we are finding. With only 46 per cent of our children passing, we will find that more of them will be going to secondary schools (but) they will not be able to perform in the first form of the secondary school. We are having difficulty to get many of them to read and write properly. If you can’t read and write properly, how is it that you can enter into a high school?” Armogan questioned.
Focus, he noted, must be on ensuring that children at the primary level are able to attain the necessary academic levels needed for entry into secondary schools. He said secondary school teachers have been complaining that enough teaching is not being done at the primary level.
“That is why we have been doing the six-year programme in some schools. Some of the low-performing secondary schools, like Winifred Gaskin Secondary and a few more, we have developed what is called a six-year programme. In the first year, the children are exposed to general reasoning, writing and basis Mathematics to bring them up to speed; and once that have passed that first year, quite a lot of them have done pretty well with the six-year programme.”
Noting that many teachers at the primary level have been putting in hard work, the Regional Chairman said the Regional Education Officer (REDO) and her staff will have a lot of work to do in order to reverse the results.
Meanwhile, the region’s overall poor performance does not mean that students who did not attain the marks for a desired school will be allowed a transfer to that school.
“The policy of the Ministry is clear on that. If you have not attained that marks required to get into a particular school, then those requests cannot be entertained.”
Following the release of NGSA results last week, many parents have been approaching schools and the Department of Education, seeking to have their children transferred to another school. (Andrew Carmichael)
