Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) has been announced as the most improved region at this year’s National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) by Chief Education Officer (CEO), Dr Marcel Hutson.
The CEO was at the time addressing parents, guardians, teachers, and the region’s top 10 NGSA students at the Kato Primary School, Region Eight, where they were honoured for their performance yesterday.
The region’s top 10 pupils were each given a token from the Ministry of Education as well as a bursary made possible by the Smalta brand, distributed by Ansa McAL Trading Ltd.
According to the Chief Education Officer, the performance of the region is a testimony to all the efforts that have been made in education within the region.
“I can say without any degree of contention that when we look at the results for Region 8, it is the most improved region.”
According to Dr Hutson, the Ministry of Education is very keen on closing the gaps in terms of the performance by schools on the coast and those in the hinterland.
He said that the Ministry is also keen on achieving the sustainable development goal four that speaks to access, equity, and lifelong learning. Regarding access to education, he committed that the Ministry will continue to strive to ensure that the nation’s children have access to education, particularly since universal primary education has already been achieved.
In terms of quality of education in the region, the CEO noted that though the region may have an issue with quality teachers, the Ministry is not oblivious to the fact. Dr Hutson noted that people are being trained in the region at Paramakatoi to become trained teachers.
“We have to be concerned about how our children are educated. Primary is the most basic of education. If you do not have one [primary education] it becomes increasingly difficult to matriculate,” the CEO noted.
Furthermore, teachers, as well as the parents, were congratulated by the CEO for the work that was done with the children while stressing the point that the teachers are the most influential person in the education system.
Meanwhile, delivering the feature address was Minister of Social Cohesion Dr George Norton. With a 10 percent improvement in the performance of mathematics in the region, Minister Norton expressed his conviction that if children can do well in mathematics, they possess the ability to perform well in the other subject areas.
He told the students that the fact that they are in the hinterland is no reason why they should not earn spots at top schools. He said, “Gone were the days when persons in the hinterland were graded differently to get into top schools in Georgetown.”
Minister Norton urged parents that they need to start working with their children from the early stages as they will now enter secondary school. “You have the foundation already,” he added.
The parents were encouraged that while they work with the children, they must also ensure that they are involved in extra-curricular activities such as sports. He said that this will result in the children not viewing school as a burden and result in them becoming rounded individuals in society.
Region Education Officer, Ms Penelope McIntosh said that yesterday marked a very important day on the calendar of the Ministry of Education and more so the region’s Department of Education.
She said that it is important that the 120 primary school teachers in the region are congratulated for the work done to ensure their pupils perform well. Ms McIntosh said that she has been inspired by the openness of teachers in the region to take advantage of any training the Department of Education or the National Centre for Education Resource Development (NCERD) has to offer.
She said that it must be noted that students in the top 10 came from schools in both sub-regions.
Also present to congratulate the region’s top performers were Assistant Chief Education Officer Ms Carol Benn and Toshao of Kato, Mr Clifton Perreira.
While at Kato, Minister Norton also donated some sports gears to the Kato Sports Club.
The region’s top 10 students are:
