Students who fail to matriculate after participating in the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) are offered remedial classes through a Transitional programme introduced some nine years ago by the Ministry of Education.
However, there are occasions that even after being exposed to this programme that learning remains a challenge for some students.
According to Transition Teacher, Acklima Pearce, following their performance after the Christmas and Easter terms, some students were still not able to achieve above 50 per cent. As such, a strategic camp was planned to give those students another chance to improve themselves so that they can be placed into Grade Seven come September.
Yesterday at the New Campbellville Secondary School, the camp, under the theme “Learning is Fun”, was initiated by the Georgetown Department of Education for 110 students.
The camp, which will run for one week, will seek to reinforce in the minds of the students what was taught during the academic year 2018-2019 when they were part of a Transition Class following the NGSA.
Pearce explained that the Ministry usually assesses the results of students across the education districts who participate in the NGSA. Based on that analysis, the Ministry believed it was fitting to begin a special programme to provide additional help to students that needed it.
She said that the programme targets students that were not able to gain marks to begin the regular five-year secondary education programme. She said that these students are still given the opportunity to attend secondary school but for six years, instead of five, since their first year would be a transitioning class, preparing them for secondary education.
Pearce explained that the subjects that are taught in the Transition Class are mathematics, grammar, composition, comprehension, spelling, reading, vocabulary, phonics, social studies, art and craft, physical education, and poetry.
She explained too that at the beginning of each Transition Class, a pre-test is administered in mathematics and language to assess the students’ ability. She said that the scores are recorded and at the end of the year, the said examination is administered to the students for a comparison to be made.
She said that upon completion of this one-year class, the students are placed in Grade Seven where they are taught seven subjects, mathematics, language, science, social studies, reading and two enrichment subjects.
