REGION Eight is the most improved region at this year’s National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA), Chief Education Officer, Marcel Hutson has disclosed.

According to the chief education officer, the performance of the region is a testimony to all the efforts that have been made towards education in the region.

“I can say without any degree of contention, that when we look at the results for Region Eight, it is the most improved region.”

According to Dr. Hutson, the Ministry of Education is very keen on closing the gaps in terms of performance by schools on the coast and those in the hinterland.

He said too that the ministry is also keen on achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) four that speaks to access, equity and life-long learning.

Regarding access to education, he committed that the ministry will continue to strive to ensure that the nation’s children have access to education, particularly since universal primary education has already been achieved.

In terms of quality of education in the region, the CEO noted that though the region may have an issue with quality teachers, the ministry is not oblivious to the fact and related that teachers are being trained in the region at Paramakatoi to become trained teachers.

“We have to be concerned about how our children are educated. Primary is the most basic of education. If you do not have one [primary education] it becomes increasingly difficult to matriculate,” the CEO noted.

Hutson was at the time addressing parents, guardians, teachers and the region’s top 10 NGSA students on Monday at the Kato Primary School, Region Eight, where those students were honoured for their performance.

The top performers were each given a token from the Ministry of Education as well as a bursary made possible by the Smalta brand, distributed by Ansa McAL Trading Limited.

Teachers, as well as parents, were congratulated by the CEO for the work done with the children. He also stressed that teachers are the most influential persons in the education system.

With a 10 per cent improvement in the performance of mathematics in the region, Minister of Social Cohesion, Dr. George Norton, said if the children can do well in mathematics, they possess the ability to perform well in the other subject areas.

He told the students that the fact that they are in the hinterland is no reason why they should not earn spots at top schools. “Gone were the days when persons in the hinterland were graded differently to get into top schools in Georgetown,” he said.

Minister Norton urged parents that they need to start working with their children from the early stages as they will now enter secondary school. “You have the foundation already,” he said.

The parents were encouraged to ensure that they are involved in extra-curricular activities such as sports, since this will result in the children not viewing school as a burden and result in them becoming rounded individuals in society. In this vein, Minister Norton also donated some sports gears to the Kato Sports Club.

Regional Education Officer, Penelope McIntosh, said the performance of students was an outstanding achievement of the region.

She said it is important that the 120 primary school teachers in the region are congratulated for the work done to ensure their pupils perform well. McIntosh said she has been inspired by the openness of teachers in the region to take advantage of any training the Department of Education or the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) has to offer.