The Ministry of Education is still to release the dates for the upcoming National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA).
When Stabroek News spoke with the Public Relations Officer for the Ministry of Education Murtland Haley yesterday afternoon, he said that the ministry is still making decisions for the much anticipated exams, which are planned for July. “No official date has been communicated to me as yet. I was told that senior officials within the ministry are meeting to discuss but I am not sure what the agenda is,” Haley said during a phone call.
Attempts to contact the Chief Executive Officer Ingrid Trotman were unsuccessful.
Parents and guardians of sixth grade students have shared their distress at the ministry’s silence on the situation and their fears that students are not properly prepared to sit the exams.
Desiree Thomas, who has a grandson expected to sit the July exams, said that her fears lie with the child having to sit an exam while not being fully prepared for it and also how safe it will be for him to be out in public and around other children. Thomas noted that she wants the children to get the exam over with but not at the cost of them risking contraction of the new coronavirus. Thomas also said that she is waiting to hear what decisions will be made regarding safety and health care because if the proper protocols are not being observed, she will have no choice but not to send her grandson to write the exam for his own safety.
Thomas also spoke about the readiness of students. She described her grandson as a slow learner, which is why she says she worries for students who will be sent to write the exam although they are already at a disadvantage since they require extra attention and may not have had the opportunity to fully absorb the required lessons.
Another parent complained that the Education Ministry’s decisions are not going to benefit the students sitting the exam. The mother of a grade six student (name provided) said that she worries for her child since teachers are not reaching out to teach the children. She complained that she has been working beside her child for some time now but she does not believe her daughter is fully ready to sit the exam.
The concerned parent also shared her distress for those who do not have the same resources as her child. “There are people in the hinterland areas, children who don’t have access to the internet, children who don’t have access to a radio or TV. The ministry is not thinking about those students. They plan to put these children to sit an exam when they are not fully prepared and are they thinking about how this will affect them mentally and their health? Have they thought about how these children will travel to the facility where they will write the exam?” she asked.
In a recently published letter that addresses the decisions that are yet to be announced and the reopening of schools prior to the exam, a parent shared her concern for the eleven year old who will be sent to sit the exam which will determine which school they receive secondary learning at. In the letter, titled “Children not ready for Grade Six Assessment,” published in the May 17, 2020, edition of Sunday Stabroek, the parent spoke about the much opposed CXC decision and said that it is her hope that the Ministry will not follow in the CXC’s footsteps. She also asked that the ministry follow strict COVID-19 protocols as advised by the National COVID-19 Task Force and noted that the premature reopening of schools could have serious consequences.
The parent said the notion that students completed the curriculum before the schools were closed might not be true and this could potentially affect the students’ grades. It was argued that students would need to “go through at least a month of pupil-teacher contact or re-acclimatization before they are back in examination mode. The longer school stays closed, the farther these 10 and 11 year olds are away from examination readiness. Remember, as much as they would have been ‘home schooled’, three months or more of home schooling cannot get them ready to sit this very important examination.”
