Minister expresses confidence in National Grade Six results
MINISTER of Education, Ms. Priya Manickchand has expressed nothing but confidence in the candidates who sat the National Grade Six Examination as the country anxiously awaits the outcome. Speaking to the Guyana Chronicle during a visit to Winfer Gardens Primary School in Georgetown, she said the results are still in the verification stage but should be released by Friday, the latest.
“We don’t know the results yet. We work with codes and numbers. We don’t work with names and identity. However, I am confident that the results will be better than last year,” Manickchand said.
Commenting on the English and Mathematics pilot projects that have been introduced in schools countrywide, the minister said there have been major improvements by students in those subject areas.
She said, since the launch of the programme, students have displayed a renewed interest in the subjects. “We are going to see the kind of results that we, initially, wanted… there isn’t a doubt that we will have improvements in these areas.”
The minster introduced the bold new initiative last year, geared towards improving performance levels in Mathematics and English at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination.
According to her, the pilot was implemented in 32 selected schools in several regions, aimed to improving the system within five months. It included intense interactions among students, parents and teachers in the two critical subject areas, with the Education Ministry facilitating.
The objective is to raise the percentage passes in Mathematics and English by at least 20 percent and she assured that all the resources will be made available to make sure students and teachers stick to the programme.

Necessary tools
The minister explained that each of the 4,000 students and their teachers, who form part of the programme, will be given the necessary tools, including texts, study guides, revision DVDs, combined past papers from 2008 to 2011 and the stationery needed to make the project a success.
As to the need for such action, Manickchand highlighted that, though the education sector has seen large investments by the government, there still has not been the proportionate corresponding results, particularly in core subjects like Mathematics and English, even though that from English have been quite impressive  over the past two years.
She said the 32 schools chosen are among those which recorded exemplary results at the 2010-2011 CSEC examinations and the teachers there would have also received training in Mathematics and English.
The schools involved are in Regions 2 (Pomeroon/ Supenaam), 3 (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara), 4 (Demerara/Mahaica), 5 (Mahaica/Berbice), 6 (East Berbice /Corentyne), 7 (Cuyuni/Mazaruni), 9 (Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo) and 10 (Upper Demerara/ Upper Berbice).