The Department of Education, Region Four in an expression of confidence in the success of its Great Minds initiative, has taken steps to commence its second batch much earlier even though the 2019 National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) official results are yet to be made public.
The Region in a release, stated that the initiative, which was birthed by the Ministry of Education, was geared towards the 2019 National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) exams and was passionately supported by acting Regional Education Officer (REdO), Tiffany Harvey in 2018. The initiative is now being viewed as the perfect vehicle that will deliver success in the NGSA exams to the region and will be continued by the Department of Education, Region Four.
The programme was named Great Minds after Harvey had said that the greatest of the minds in Region Four were being further moulded so as to bring greater success to the region. She added that the programme will continue to challenge the students to increase their performance while motivating them to continue studying and or doing exceptionally well.
Harvey in an earlier interview had said that over the years the focus has been on students who are not that strong and who need remedial work. However, those students who have been known as high flyers or excelling, have been forgotten, as the perception is there that they are fine and will continue to do well. “Through the Great Minds, it [will] help in removing complacency as the students would know that while they are top of their respective class or school, that there are others who can challenge them, thus forcing them to do better. They would recognise that while they may have it easy at their respective school, when they are faced with similar students doing equally well or even better than them, they would recognise that there is no room for complacency. As such, they must ensure that their performances remain intact, while their performances must be at a certain level if they want to remain at the top,” she said.
One of the facilitators of the programme, Jennel Lewis of St Paul’s Primary said that while they had begun the classes in September, they have opted to do it much earlier this year, recognising that if significant work is to be done, then the classes must start earlier.
As a result, classes commenced last Saturday and will continue to the end of July. In addition, the classes which are being held daily as well as on Saturdays during school holidays, would take a one-month break for August after which it would recommence in September. “Last year we started in September and while we are confident that several of our students would be in this year’s top 1% we are working much earlier and harder with the second batch as these students that we are working with already are in Grade Five and come September they would be going to Grade Six,” Lewis said
Samiyah Shaw of Chateau Margot Primary, another of the four facilitators, pointed out that when they commenced the programme in 2018, the cream of the crop was drawn randomly from the various primary schools in Region Four. However, for this batch an examination was held and the top 40 students representing the various Primary schools were selected. She revealed that the students were selected from the 56 primary schools within the region thus, making it more organised than last year. “Last year students were drawn randomly but this year we are doing it differently as the students wrote an exam and we have started off with 40 students so far,” Shaw explained.
Lewis echoed her colleagues’ sentiments in her confidence of significant success for the batch while admitting that they all have great expectations. She added that those teachers working on the initiative continue to give of their services voluntarily, and like the acting REdO, they are all confident that the selectees will excel significantly.
Both Lewis and Shaw said that they are eagerly awaiting the announcement of this year’s NGSA results which will be announced on July 3, while noting that they intend to build on the enormous successes that Region Four has been achieving over the years.
“Our goal is to push the students that we are working with further academically so that they can achieve, as we believe that if we can challenge them [the students] to push themselves further then we can achieve our ultimate objective of increasing the overall performance,” Lewis and Shaw were quoted as saying.
The students who have been drawn from both from East Coast and East Bank are meeting at the Education Department boardroom at the Regional Democratic Council offices. They are being tutored additionally by Malina Matthews of Annandale Primary and Atanica Gordon of Covent Garden Primary, the release added.
