The first National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) mock examination was written on June 9th and 10th, 2021 and the results from that examination are currently being analysed, the Education Ministry said today.
Most of the examination results have been recorded by the Ministry of Education and are being analysed with a view of identifying weaknesses children have in the four subject areas of Mathematics, English Language, Science and Social Studies.
Minister of Education Priya Manickchand met with teachers and Regional Education Officers from the 11 Education Districts following the examination to discuss the experiences and what needs to be done moving forward.
Of the 14, 300 students registered to write the NGSA next month, 12, 500 students participated in the examination, with 2000 coming from the private school system.
The second mock examination for the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) 2021 will be written on July 7 and 8, 2021. This will be held under full examination conditions except for those students who chose to write the examination at home. This option will not be available for the official NGSA to be written on August 4th and 5th, 2021.
All preparations are underway for the successful writing of the NGSA in August. The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has set the examination based on the consolidated curriculum that was prepared by the Ministry of Education and those Grade Four topics that usually feature in the NGSA.
From all indications, based on preliminary analysis of the results from the first mock exam and the feedback from teachers and Education Officers, the decision by the Ministry to only allow CXC to test on topics up to Grade Five was the best option to give the students a fair chance due to prevailing circumstances.
“Further, the learning resources that were distributed to each Grade Six child in a study package including textbooks, notes and worksheets have proven to be an effective solution to assist our students as they prepare to write the examination. This coupled with other initiatives such as the NGSA Booster Programme being aired on the Guyana Learning Channel via television and YouTube along with the Quiz Me Platform on the Ministry’s website have greatly benefited students. As of this afternoon, 103, 000 quizzes have been taken on the platform which shows that our students are practicing to perfection,” the Ministry said.
Despite these gains in offering support to teachers and students, Grade Six teachers have indicated that they are experiencing difficulty when teaching some topics online, especially in the Mathematics subject area. The Ministry has taken note of this and has begun an exercise to identify how best teachers can be supported further with this specific challenge with the outcome being a better performance by students.
