Big Improvement in Mathematics- as Saskia Twahir top Guyana at NGSA

DPI/GINA, Guyana, Friday, June 30, 2017

Mathematics was the most improved subject at the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) which recorded a 46 per cent pass rate in 2017, as against 14 per cent in 2016, as Saskia Twahir of School of the Nations topped the country with 524 marks, earning a place at Queen’s College.

The top ten students who performed well at the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA).

This was announced by Minister of Education (ag) Nicolette Henry, during the announcement of the of the 2017 NGSA results, which was written by 13,329 students, on April 12 and 13.

“Mathematics was the most improved subject at the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA,) which recorded an increase of over 30 per cent in the number of candidate gaining 50 per cent and more,” Minister Henry announced. She said that in English, there was a 54 per cent pass-rate in 2017 as compared to 42 per cent in 2016.

The other subjects also saw an increase in pass-rate. In English, there was a 54 per cent pass-rate in 2017 as compared to 42 per cent in 2016. Whilst in 2016 there were 28 per cent passes in Science there is an almost double improvement pass rate of 46 per cent for 2017. Social Studies which was always a high-performance subject moved from 46 per cent to 48 per cent this year.

In terms of the performance of those regions that had a very poor pass rate in mathematics, in 2016, six students from

Minister of Education, Nicolette Henry during her announcement of the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) result at the Ministry of Education, Brickdam, Georgetown.

Region One passed with 50 per cent and over, this year, that number increased to 172. In Region Two, 93 children passed as compared to 358 in 2017; in Region Three, from 317 increased to 937; Region Four, 489 increased to 1, 417, Region Five from 85 increased to 348, Region Eight, one increased to 62 and Region Nine 13, increased to 156.

Chief Education Officer, Marcel Hutson said that Guyana has much to celebrate, while noting that a foundation has already been established and the Ministry now has a mandate to build upon that foundation.  “There is a start and we have seen a shifting and we will continue to work smart because at the end of the day we want to see these numbers continue to go up and I believe that the plans that we have in train, will see these numbers getting better,” Hutson said.

The country 2017 mathematic pass-rate could be accredited to several factors including the government’s intervention of Programme for Emergency Education Reform (PEER,) which was initiated, last year. PEER aimed at strengthening the teaching capacity of Mathematics at the Grade Six level in public schools.

Chief Education Officer (CEO) Marcel Hutson, addressing those present at the announcement of the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) result at the Ministry of Education, Brickdam, Georgetown.

Training for teachers in content and methodology, facilitating fortnightly cluster meeting in all regions, recruitment of mathematics coordinators and monitors, training, administering a diagnostic assessment of pupils in the hinterland  prior to training of teachers, are all aspects of the programme that is being implemented.

Particularly, in Regions One, Eight and Nine, a diagnostic assessment was done to determine exactly where those children were at before the implementation of the intervention. Those students were given extra attention as they were seriously lagging behind and now there have been marked improvements, Hutson explained.

Meanwhile, as it relates to the performance of the public schools, as compared to the Private schools, Hutson explained that it would be unfair to compare the two, since at the private intuitions; only 400 students wrote the exams as compared to over 13,000 wrote it at the public schools.

 

By: Synieka Thorne

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