Of the 14,300 students that sat this year’s National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA), 61% of candidates were unable to pass in Social Studies while for Mathematics and Science the fail rates were 58% and 57.6%, respectively.
This translates to 39% passing Social Studies; 42.4% Science; and 42% Mathematics.
Using the numbers provided by the Ministry of Education today at the National Centre for Educational Resources (NCERD), Guyana Standard was able to conclude that of the 14,300 pupils that wrote the NGSA, 8,723 candidates (61%) were unable to pass Social Studies; 8,236 (57.6%) candidates were unable to pass Science; and 8,294 (58%) were unable to pass Mathematics.
With regards to English, performance in this area was “stable”, Minister of Education, Dr Nicolette Henry, said.
She reported that for this year, 57.4% of the candidates passed, as compared to 2018 when 60.6% of candidates were able to achieve the minimum pass rate of 50%.
She assured attendees, which included pupils, teachers, and parents, that her ministry is working assiduously to achieve better scores at these exams.
Meanwhile, the minister called for more collaboration among stakeholders and spoke about the introduction of smart classrooms, robotics, and artificial intelligence into the school curriculum.
Furthermore, despite more than half of the candidates failing Mathematics, Dr Henry noted that there has been a recorded improved performance this year. She explained that the recorded 42% of students that passed this year is an increase from 38.3% last year.
Commenting on the overall performance, the minister noted that within the last three years (2016–2019) student performance has been improving. Statistics provided by the Education Ministry, however, shows a decline in all subject areas this year, except for mathematics.
