In what has now become a continuing trend, private primary schools claimed almost 50% of the top results of this year’s National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA), with Mae’s Under 12 students earning five of the top ten spots as well as some 12 more among the top one per cent.
On March 25 and 26 last, 16,811 students wrote the NGSA. Of that amount, 173 students comprised the top one percent. Over 80 of the 173 students were from private schools around the country.
In addition, the list released revealed that no student from regions One, Five, Seven, Eight and Nine made it among the top one percent.
However, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand, releasing the results at a press briefing yesterday at National Center for Educational Research and Development, said the problem was not access to education but implementation of strategic policies in those regions.
“Guyana has moved leaps and bounds as far as it relates to access to education,” she said. “All of our children in primary school can access an education. We have attained Millennium Development Goal number 2…, however we have to work on the quality of education we are delivering,” the minister said when questioned on the results.
“… We have to now make sure… now that we have the children in the classroom what is it they are learning and what quality and that is something we are addressing,” she added.
Manickchand explained that currently her ministry was addressing holistically strengthening the country’s educational institutions. “Our country has moved from 30% trained teachers to 70% trained teachers. What we have to examine is whether we have seen the corresponding shift in results.
“I would say we have definitely seen children doing better because of the higher complement of trained teachers whether that is proportionally better is something we are still examining. We then have to look at resources; what are the resources we have? What are the resources we are offering?” she said.
Manickchand also informed that President Donald Ramotar has promised to give all of the students in the top one percent laptops.
She relayed that he had sent congratulations to all the students who would have done well and that he was pleased with the results especially that the students came from a cross-section of the country.
Students wrote the four core subjects—Math, English, Social Studies and Science—which gave maximum marks of 560 or 85% or their total marks. The score they gained at the NGSA was then added to those they received in their Grade 2 and Grade 4 examinations which totalled 5% and 10% respectively.
