Education Ministry records 95% turnout for NGSA 2021

The National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) written on Wednesday and Thursday saw a 95% turnout according to the Ministry of Education. In a statement on Thursday, the Ministry committed to reaching out to the missing 5% and re-integrating them into the school system.

A total of 14, 400 candidates registered to write the examination. The Ministry did not give a figure of how many pupils were missing from the 503 examination centres across Guyana.

As a result of the pandemic, the Ministry this year established 33 new examination centres to reduce travel distance for students and parents. In addition to the examination centres, emergency centres were established to accommodate those candidates who may have tested positive for COVID-19 or are in quarantine.

This was done for the 2021 CSEC and CAPE examinations whereby COVID-19 positive candidates were accommodated and allowed to write their examinations in a separate building.

Others were restricted from gatherings and had to observe various COVID-19 measures to protect themselves and families.

Lead by the Honourable Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand several Education Officers including the Chief Education Officer, Dr. Marcel Hutson visited examination centres to observe the process and to ensure that all established guidelines and protocols were in place and being followed.

Schools in Guyana were closed in March 2020 following the country’s first COVID-19 case. Since then, the Ministry has implemented a number of systems to keep children engaged and educated including the distribution of worksheets, programmes on the Guyana Learning Channel, online teaching and other methods.

To prepare for the examinations, each Grade Six pupil was given a study package containing social studies and science notes, worksheets for the four subjects, past papers from the last five years and 12 textbooks on the four subject areas of English, mathematics, science and social studies. A consolidated curriculum was produced for Grade Six teachers to use as they prepared their pupils, the Ministry said.

The Ministry also launched a Quiz Me Platform on its website which offers students the opportunity to practice NGSA level questions and be provided with the results instantaneously. The NGSA Booster Programme was also launched whereby local teachers are recorded teaching the topics which can feature on the examination. These videos are aired on the Guyana Learning Channel according to a timetabled schedule and are also available for streaming on the Guyana Learning Channels Youtube channel.

All of these resources were made available at no cost to parents, pupils and teachers and we are confident that they were used as much as possible to help children prepare for this examination. We wish all of the candidates the very best in their examinations.