Thousands of students across the length and breadth of Guyana will sit the first of the two-day National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) examinations today.
Education Minister Nicolette Henry will this morning visit three public schools in Georgetown; namely Rama Krishna Primary School, North Georgetown Primary School and St Margaret’s Primary School. The NGSA is a placement examination offered at the end of the primary education cycle to determine which secondary school students will be allotted.
Some students writing mock exams last year in preparation for today’s National Grade Six Assessment
According to the Ministry, the overall performance is calculated by adding five per cent of each candidate’s Grade Two scores in Mathematics and English, and 10 per cent of the Grade Four score in the same subjects. This was then added to a further 85 per cent of each candidate’s score in those subjects at the Grade Six Assessment. The combined scores in Mathematics and English were then added to the scores gained in Science and Social Studies.
On April 12 and 13, 2017, about 13,657 students from across Guyana wrote the National Grade Six Assessment. During the two-day examination period, the students were assessed in four subject areas: English Language, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies – two on each day. Each subject consists of two papers – Paper Two was the first paper written and consisted of essay-type questions while Paper One consisted of multiple choice questions.
However, prior to this, the students had to write the National Grades Two and Four Assessments back in 2012 and 2014 respectively. A percentage of the marks from all three assessments will be calculated to determine the overall performance of each student.
After the examinations conclude tomorrow, students for the next few months will be anticipating where they will be placed when the results are released by the Education Ministry.
Over the past three years, the trend of Maths performance was 37.49 per cent pass rate in 2015, 13.85 in 2016 and 45.6 per cent in 2017. Last year, the students were tested in this subject based on their knowledge, algorithmic thinking and reasoning. In 2015, English recorded 45.88 per cent, 41.62 per cent the following year and in 2017, 54.1 per cent pass rate of students gaining more than 50 per cent. “This is the first time in many years that we were able to get over 50 per cent passes in a subject area and that is absolutely phenomenal,” Minister Henry had stated. The figures for Science were 44.12 in 2015, 27.55 in 2016 and 46.3 per cent this year. In this subject, they were tested for knowledge, comprehension and application. There was a 46.5 per cent pass rate recorded in 2015 for Social Studies, 46.1 per cent in 2016 and 47.6 per cent in 2017.
