Schools being extended to place all NGSA learners – PS

The Education Ministry is making arrangements to adequately place the larger volume of Grade Six students into secondary schools as these learners return to the classroom on October 3.
This year, over 16,000 learners sat the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) and had to be placed by the Education Ministry in a secondary institution based on their performance. This represents 4,000 more students requiring placements.
Permanent Secretary of the Education Ministry, Alfred King, told media operatives on Thursday that work is ongoing to extend some schools within Georgetown. This year, a larger number of students gained a place at the NGSA.
“The Government in itself is very proactive in terms of its policies in placing those additional 4,000 learners. From the 3rd, we’re expecting that all the learners would be in school…If you pass around (the premises of) QC or Bishops, you will see intentions to extend those schools by new spaces being created. Similarly, that is happening in and around Georgetown, which I rather suspect would roll out in time.”

Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary underscored that the Education Ministry is aiming to return to complete normalcy as disruptions slowly fade. This is ongoing at not just the NGSA level, but at the CXC level as well.
“Even with CXC, they tried their best to bring back the results a little bit early to go back into the cycle of applying for jobs and universities. It is the same with NGSA. We’re hopeful that with most of the disruptions almost over and everything is back to almost normal, that we go back to normal timetabling, so that there would be preparing for and getting into the Grade Six level from next year onwards,” King posited.
Since the pandemic, it has been reiterated that Education officials have been analysing policies and resources for students to access education without any hindrances. This year, 16,223 students were registered for the 2022 NGSA sitting. Some 3355 students scored above 75 per cent, or in the fourth quartile ranking.
Additionally, some 3456 scored above 50 per cent. Social Studies recorded an increase in performance at 58.9 per cent, but also an increase in students scoring zero. As it relates to science, overall performance moved from 40.12 per cent to 45.45 per cent.
English saw a slight reduction in overall performance at 64.8 per cent. For Mathematics, there was a slight reduction when compared to 2021, with 34.7 per cent pass rate.
In 2022, more students were able to secure a spot in a national school when compared to previous years. (G12)