At a press conference on Monday to release the results of this year’s National Grade Six Assessments, Minister of Education Shaik Baksh said there were stronger performances in Mathematics this year as well as in Science and that English was still a major concern; he also pointed to the continuing trend of girls out-performing boys. The minister stated too that the improvement seen in Mathematics would have been as a result of the Interactive Radio Instruction Programme, which coaches primary school pupils in Mathematics; there was no explanation for why Science scores would have improved.
The statistics released by the Ministry of Education on Monday showed in fact a general improvement – percentage wise – in all subject areas. “Compared to last year, students scoring 50% and more in the subjects written were Mathematics 34% (21% in 09); English 24% (27% in 09); Science 33% (23% in 09) and Social Studies 34% (32% in 2009),” a report in this newspaper gleaned from the press release said. One wonders though if other statistics were taken into consideration when these scores were deemed an improvement. For instance, does the fact that 16,351 children wrote the Grade Six assessment this year as opposed to 18,612 last year (1,547 fewer children) have any bearing on the results obtained? How about the fact that the total possible marks that could have been scored last year were 592 and this year the figure was 565? Last year’s top scorer, Larissa Wiltshire, had gained 565 marks.
It was also noticeable that the cut-off scores for the top high schools in the country were lowered this year. According to the summary provided by the ministry, the cut-off score for Queen’s College was 532 marks this year as opposed to 542 marks last year; for Bishops’ High School it is 525 as against 534 last year; St Stanislaus College 519 as against 528; St Rose’s High 511 as against 519; and St Joseph High 507, as against 514.
The Ministry of Education’s press release did not provide a reason for this nor did Minister Baksh in his address to the media, and perhaps he should. Can the ministry’s exams division say also whether the results released are of actual scores or weighted scores? If there has been statistical manipulation of the results then it could explain why the scores are lower this year and would indicate that there has not been a lowering of standards. Indeed if this were the case, the Ministry of Education should be perturbed rather than in a self-congratulatory mode.
The observation must be made though that there has been a lowering of requirements for entry to educational institutions with persons concluding that it points to a ‘dumbing-down’ in the society. This has been happening at various levels of the education system. The requirements for entry to the University of Guyana and the Cyril Potter College of Education have been lowered to facilitate large numbers of students who would otherwise have been unable to make the grade. Lower cut-off scores for secondary level students could point to a trend which should be worrying. The ministry should explain itself.
It should also be of concern that of 16,351 children writing the assessment tests, fewer than 1,000 scored between 507 and 550 marks. And though the ministry frowns on the practice, if a poll were to be done it would reveal that all of them and a great number of their peers, whose scores were lower, went to extra lessons after school.
To its credit, the Ministry of Education seems to be moving to buck this trend, though perhaps a tad too slowly. It has established a Literacy Unit which will target students in after-school programmes and the minister had announced at his press briefing on Monday that the children who scored below 50% at the assessment would be exposed to remedial work during the July-August break this year. One hopes that English, including Reading and Phonetics would be a major component of this programme. Anecdotal evidence reveals that too many children are entering secondary schools still unable to read a complete sentence. The ministry has also said more recently that it was “considering offering scholarships and special incentives for trained Mathematics and Science teachers as a means of promoting the two subject areas…” One hopes that this would not be to the detriment of the other subject areas.
Finally, it’s high time that the ministry begins to release the results of the Grade Two and Grade Four assessments tabulated with the Grade Six results when it provides children’s scores after the Grade Six exams. One of the reasons given for the change some years ago was that it would remove some of the pressure the Secondary School Entrance Exams placed on the students. Is this working? To paraphrase Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire, it’s time for the ministry to ‘show us the money.’
