As students prepare to write the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) next week, Guyana Times on Friday visited local primary schools, during which both pupils and teachers expressed confidence in their preparations.
With less than a week remaining until the annual examination, classes were in session despite it being the last day of the school term.
‘Ready’, ‘excited’ and a bit ‘nervous’ were some of the words used by the pupils of
Grade Six pupils of the Eccles Primary School during a class session on the last day of the school term
Peters Hall Primary and Eccles Primary when describing their feelings towards the upcoming examinations.
“I’ve been taking extra lessons from my teacher which helps me to prepare more, also by studying late at night and asking questions when I do not understand. And I feel like this exam, I will be confident and I will pass,” relayed Shekina Elliott of Peters Hall Primary, who also indicated that the preparations were initially challenging. Moreover, Akin Sanya Mwanza of Eccles Primary told this newspaper that, “Our teacher is giving us lessons, she’s working with us and I am ready. The schools I would like to go to would either be Queen’s, Bishops’ or St Joseph.”
Also speaking to Guyana Times were the Grade Six teachers of two schools, who were confident in the efforts made to take the pupils to the finish line. However, they did indicate that it was no easy task.
“It is tedious teaching Grade Six because you’re always at it, working consistently,” expressed Fazia John, level teacher at the Eccles Primary. On the other hand, Miss Karen Austin of Peters Hall Primary indicated that efforts are made to adapt new strategies to care for the weak pupils, especially in challenging subjects such as Mathematics.
Move over, the teachers also addressed the changes made to the NGSA in the past year, while at the same time highlighting the contributions made by the Education Ministry. Austin noted that the Education Ministry aided in the preparation by sending mock examinations to be used as practice as well as giving the pupils a fair idea of what to except.
John however commented on the new development of involving the regional entity, Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) in the marking of the examination scripts. Her thoughts on the recent change were, “In regards to CXC taking over NGSA, I don’t have a problem with that. It forces the child to be able to apply reasoning skills more, in terms of how they go about setting the questions.”
With that, both of the teachers extended well wishes to their students and pointed out that they are confident that successful results are impending.
The annual secondary school placement examinations is set for Wednesday, April 12 and Thursday, April 13, throughout the 10 region of Guyana. Over 20,000 pupils are expected to sit the assessment this year.
