STEM Guyana, on Monday, launched a National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) Application aimed at providing necessary assistance in the subject of Mathematics for children at the Grade Six level. The Application will serve as a database for past papers from the 2010-2015 NGSA and will allow students to take examinations and have access to lessons and other material on the Mathematics syllabus. The App will also provide a platform for students to identify influential teachers and give schools and students the chance to receive points and win awards.
President David Granger attended the event, along with First Lady Sandra Granger, whose office has played a significant role in the execution of STEM in Guyana. First Lady sat on the panel at the Press Conference, and during brief remarks, expressed her pride in being part of the revolutionary project. She credited the work of Karen Abrams, the facilitator of STEM Guyana, who, last year brought STEM to Guyana through the hosting of a Lego Robotics Building and Programming Workshop for the children in the Buxton/Friendship and Lusignan/Good Hope Areas.
“The introduction of this app is very exciting for me, I made no hesitation in supporting the work of Karen Abrams, and her children who came last year and did tremendous work in introducing some of our children to robotics,” The First Lady said. She added that when Abrams announced her plans to launch an App to encourage learning in Mathematics, she was excited to come on board. “I am very happy to be part of this process of creating excitement in learning one of the STEM subjects and providing whatever assistance I can in helping our children to become enthusiastic and excited about stem programmes and products,” she said.

Guyana has seen poor performance in Mathematics at the NGSA in the past few years, with only a 14 percent pass rate in the subject last year. The Application is free and available on the Google Play Store and though still in its testing phase, is fully functional and available for use.
Abrams explained that the NGSA App will be rolled out in four phases. The first phase occurred prior to the launch and involved a pre-test phase, where 60 students from Regions 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10 were introduced to the app.
Phase Two began with the launch and will last for 14 months. This phase will see distribution of 100 tablets to five schools for further testing, monitoring and evaluation of performance. Upon completion of the second phase, the third phase will be launched. Abrams said that this will see the creation of private/public partnerships that will provide tablets and internet access to Grade Six Students in every Region. The App will also eventually be expanded to include Social Studies, English and Science. The final stage of the project will involve the expansion of the application to cater to the upper grades, before finally making the application available to other countries in the Caribbean.
When asked about the cost for the programme, Abrams said that the Application was designed and programmed by her daughter Asha Christian who specialises in the field. Abrams said, too, that in order to expand the programme, STEM Guyana would need the buy in of other stakeholders including government agencies as well as private bodies.
Meanwhile, President David Granger, announced that through the National Endowment For Science And Technology (NEST) Programme, he will provide support for the roll out of Phase Two of the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) Application.
The President made this announcement after attending a press conference to mark the launch at the National Racquet Centre on Woolford Avenue and committed specifically to supporting the acquisition of 100 tablets, which will be distributed to grade five students under Phase Two for testing, which is expected to last for 14 months. “What we saw this morning with the launching of the programme by STEM Guyana is entirely in accord with government’s policy and government will support it. We will provide funds to acquire the equipment to help students to do better in Mathematics. It’s an investment. It’s not a liability. It’s not expenses. It is an investment in the children’s future,” the President said during an interview. The President said that Government has embraced Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) because it is aware of the less than desirable results over the past years at the NGSA level. “The results of the National Grade Six examinations indicated that there has been very poor performance over the years in all of the subjects but the worse performance that has been recorded is in Mathematics. In fact, it is so bad that last year; 2016 not a single child in Region Nine passed Mathematics… We established a special PEER programme for Emergency Education Reform at that level so the PEER programme is central to improving the quality performance of Guyanese children at the National Grade Six level particularly in Mathematics,” the President said.