Graham’s Hall Primary making waves at NGSA
─ teachers and students showed tremendous dedication – Headmistress
DPI, Guyana, Thursday, July 4, 2019
Established by the Moravian Church in 1918, Graham’s Hall Primary School has been making waves at the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) for the past few years.
This East Coast of Demarara school has been known to produce several top performers at the NGSA. Back in 2012, Michael Bhopaul tied for first place with Mae’s Primary School student Ramesh Ghir with 547 marks. Other top performers over the years include Sarena Razak who copped third place in 2016 and Maria Shakoor placing among the top 20 in 2014.
Speaking to the Department of Public Information (DPI), Headmistress of Graham’s Hall Primary School, Lydia Ram expressed her satisfaction with this year’s NGSA’s results. She noted that the 2019 NGSA class boasted approximately 40 pupils and both teachers and students showed tremendous dedication. Ram related that “lots of hard work and preparations” were done to ensure that the students were well equipped to sit the examinations.
“It was constant working Sunday to Sunday for the last two months, teachers were asking to come into the school to work,” she stated.
This dedication, she said, was matched equally by the students who were willing to put in the extra work. She told DPI that support was also received from the parents who were grateful for the extra lessons.
Grade Six teacher Eda Daniels, who has been with the institution for 17 years, credited this year’s NGSA’s results to a lot of hard work.
“I don’t depend on textbooks alone; I believe in research because you can’t find everything in the textbook… so, I do lots of research, and I also believe in peer tutoring,” she remarked.
Daniels explained that peer tutoring was very helpful in many of the lessons as it enabled the students to interact with each other and explain topics in a way they could easily grasp the subject material.
DPI also spoke to Dave Chowtie, one of Guyana’s top performer, who reflected on the journey ahead to Secondary School. Chowtie intends to undertake the next level of his academic career with the same enthusiasm he had approached his NGSA studies.
In addition to Chowtie, two other students from Graham’s Hall Primary School attained positions in the top one per cent. They were Reyad Chibilal and Julianna Persaud.
Images: Giovani Gajie