Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, yesterday said that the Grades Two, Four and Nine assessments will not be administered because it would be impractical to assess students at this time.
Following the Education Ministry’s press release informing the public of the Ministry’s plan to cancel the administration of the National Grades Two, Four and Nine Assessments for the academic year September 2019 to July 2020, this newspaper contacted Manickchand who said that the assessments which are usually used for evaluating whether the students have grasped all concepts taught during the school year, will not be written this year because the Ministry finds it to be impractical since a lot would have been missed while the students are at home.
Students have not entered school buildings since they were locked down in March to safeguard against contraction and spread of the novel coronavirus.
“It’s not only about them gathering to write the exam but also these are children who have not been in school so what exactly are we assessing them on? It doesn’t make sense to try to do a diagnostic test that’s supposed to be testing you on work that you couldn’t cover because you were out of school. Without the syllabus completed the students can’t be tested… It doesn’t make sense just doing it so that we can check a box. That can’t be done that’s not how we operate. It’s not a robot system,” Manickchand said when asked about the decision to withhold the assessment.
She explained that while some persons might be wondering how this decision will affect the students who receive subsidies based on their results from the Grade Nine assessment, they have nothing to worry about since that can be determined in Grade Ten. She also reminded that this assessment does not affect students in any way aside from knowing what has been learnt and what hasn’t. She said that students would still be undergoing the assessment when schools physically reopen, as that is the inevitable and that this will be done at all levels.
Manickchand noted that it is mandatory that when schools do reopen, the system is aware of where the students are academically.
