THE family of a Grade Six pupil, from Region One, who was not allowed to write the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA), said that they were never instructed that the child was required to stay at home, and not attend his examinations, despite testing negative for the COVID-19.

Both of the child’s parents had tested positive for the virus. However tests, carried out on the child and his siblings had come back negative; as such the child was sent by his guardian to write his NGSA which commenced last Wednesday.

According to reports, the child who attends the Santa Rosa Primary School, turned up as normal along with other pupils. However, after being seated, the pupil was removed and escorted out of the school compound.

A family member for the child said the family understood that it was over medical concerns, but said medical officials needed to do more in communicating with the families and patients as the country navigates the COVID-19 situation. “Nobody told the family that the child was supposed to be in quarantine.

Two weeks after the father was tested, the mother and children were tested. The mother tested positive and went into isolation. The children were left with the extended family. The family started to tutor the boy for the exam,” shared an aunt of the child.

She noted that while the family did remain at home since the first family member tested positive, they did so of their own preference, and nothing was said by medical officials that the children had to remain at home. According to her the father first tested positive over a month ago.

The aunt said that since the child had tested negative, he continued his preparations to for the NGSA with the assumption that he would be able to write the examinations whenever it came. “He wanted to make his mother feel proud so he was studying all the time with the idea that he would be writing the exam. Nobody told him that he couldn’t go [to the exam]. Had they told him that before, the mental conditioning would have been different,” the aunt said.

She said having to prepare for the exam but then being removed after turning up took a toll on the child.

“He went home crying, locked himself in his room, and didn’t want to come out. The information is that the medical people said that because both of his parents tested positive, the protocol is that he is in quarantine. This is a young child whose both parents are not at home. It really affected him,” she said.

She opined more consideration should be taken by the medical officials in how they deal with the patients. “The health people need to talk to the patients. Imagine, after the father tested positive nobody went back to the family for two weeks, these medical people need to do better and have conversations with the persons. I don’t know how they treat the other people but I can speak for my family,” she said.

Focus on the COVID-19 situation in the Barima-Waini has heightened as cases in that Region have climbed significantly, and the Region has become the country’s epicentre, having recorded 78 cases as of last Thursday. Efforts made to contact the Regional Health Officer of the Region for a comment proved futile.

Minister of Education, Nicolette Henry, reminded that mechanisms are in place for any pupil who would have had to miss the NGSA for any reason, especially those affected by the COVID-19 situation. The NGSA is the national examinations used to award primary school pupils a secondary school based on their performance at the examinations. Pupils are tested in the areas of Mathermatics, English Language, Science and Social Studies.

This year the exam was written on July 1 and 2, after having been postponed from its original scheduled date in April. The examinations were postponed after schools were closed indefinitely when Guyana recorded its first COVID-19 case on March 11. The country has since recorded a total of 250 cases, including 14 deaths. 117 persons have since recovered.