Camp for Transitioning students begins
– Aimed at reinforcing work done for the past year
(July 8, 2019) – The Department of Education Georgetown began its camp for transitioning students today at the New Campbellville Secondary School. The theme for the camp is “Learning through fun”.
The camp which will run for one week will reinforce what was taught during the academic year 2018-2019 when the children were part of a Transition Class following their National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA).
The Transition programme has been in existence for nine years. According to Ms. Acklima Pearce, Transition Teacher, the Ministry of Education had assessed the results of students across Guyana at the National Grade Six Assessment, and based on that analysis, the Ministry believed it was fitting to begin a special programme to provide additional help to students that needed it.
She said that the programme targets students that were not able to gain marks to begin the regular five-year secondary education programme. She said that these students are still given the opportunity to attend secondary school but for six years, instead of five, since their first year would be a transitioning class, preparing them for secondary education.
Ms. Pearce explained that the subjects that are taught in the Transition Class are mathematics, grammar, composition, comprehension, spelling, reading, vocabulary, phonics, social studies, art and craft, physical education and poetry.
Further, Ms. Pearce said that at the beginning of each Transition Class, a pre-test is administered in mathematics and language to assess the students’ ability. She said that the scores are recorded and at the end of the year, the said examination is administered to the students for a comparison to be made.
She said that upon completion of this one-year class, the students are placed in Grade Seven where they are taught seven subjects, mathematics, language, science, social studies, reading and two enrichment subjects.
Regarding this current batch of students, Ms. Pearce said that following their performance after the Christmas and Easter Terms, some students were still not able to achieve above 50 per cent. As such, this camp is to give those students another chance to improve themselves so that they can be placed into Grade Seven come September.
According to Mr. Sherwyn Blackman, District Education Officer, Georgetown, the Transition Class and the camp is to give students a better chance at transitioning to Grade Seven. He said that the initiative will help to fill the gaps students may have, coming from Grade Six to Grade Seven.
He said that the Camp will seek to further develop the holistic child whereby the children will be exposed to life skills training through daily talks and exercises.
He said that there will be various topics to engage and target both the boys and the girls. The DEO urged the students that though they may come from different schools, they need to come together as a family because they have similar needs.
He said that the programme has proved to be successful since students that were placed in the six years programme were just as successful at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Examination in the past when compared to students that completed the five-year secondary programme.
According to Mr. Blackman, the schools in Georgetown that host Transition classes are St. George’s High School, New Campbellville Secondary School, Cummings Lodge Secondary School, Houston Secondary School, Lodge Secondary School, Tucville Secondary School, Queenstown Secondary School and St. Winefride’s Secondary School.
Three hundred and twenty-three students were in the one-year transition class for the aforementioned academic year. However, the camp is being held for 110 of those students.