I WISH to congratulate all those students who excelled at the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA), in particular Terron Alleyne from Regma Primary School, Linden, for having topped the list of students who sat the examination. The staff at Regma Primary School deserves commendation for having put not only the school but also the region in the spotlight insofar as the attainment level of education in the region is concerned. If I am not mistaken, this is the first time that a student from Region Ten has copped the top spot at the NGSA, formerly known as the Secondary School Entrance Examination, SSEE.

What is very significant, as the Education Minister Mr. Shaik Baksh correctly pointed out, is that the spread of top performers at examinations is much more evenly distributed than in previous years, due largely to an enhanced quality of education delivery across the ten regions in Guyana. Gone are the days when Georgetown schools dominated the list of high-flyers at examinations. This is indicative of the fact that the several interventions by the ministry to upgrade the quality of education delivery are now bearing fruit.

The decision taken by the Education Ministry to phase out the Community High School Programme and replace it with a General Secondary Education Programme is also a commendable move and will further democratize the delivery of education in Guyana as more and more children will be given an opportunity to sit the CXC examination. In the past, children who did not do well at the SSEE were sent to Community High Schools or the tops of primary schools where they were merely marking time since these schools did not prepare them to write the CXC/GCE examinations.