AN EXTENSIVE analysis of the performance of students at this year’s National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) Examination has revealed that there has been an improvement in Mathematics over the past years.

This is according to Chief Education Officer Mr. Olato Sam, who was at the time addressing members of the media at the ministry’s monthly press conference in the boardroom of the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD), Kingston,
Sam credited this improved performance to the significant work which has been done by the Education Ministry over the past years through various programmes aimed at improving performance of students in this subject area.
He also revealed that students’ performance in English Language and Science has continued to fluctuate and there has been a decline in these two subject areas, while there has been consistent performance over the years in Social Studies.
According to him, when this more detailed analysis is looked at, it is clear that all education stakeholders need to double their efforts to ensure that they improve performance in all subject areas, but more specifically in the key areas of English Language and Science.
Sam said the ministry hopes to see a similar trend in English Language as in Mathematics. And improved performance is also expected in Science, with the introduction of new strategies, such as the use of micro science kits and better training for science teachers at the primary level.
According to him, female students out-performing the males in all subject areas in all regions continues, as well as students in the coastal areas outperforming those in the hinterland regions.
The ministry, he said, is very much concerned with closing the gap between hinterland and coastal regions, and they have been encouraged by what they have seen in Region 9 (Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo) where there has been an improvement in students’ performance over previous areas.
Sam noted that this region has the largest number of trained teachers of all the hinterland regions, and this shows that there is a direct co- relation between the number of trained teachers and students’ performance.
As such, he said, the ministry knows what needs to be done in order to meet the needs of the hinterland students and to ensure that their performance also improves.
The NGSA 2013 examination was written by 16,811 students on March 25 and 26, and on Friday 7th June, Education Minister, Priya Manickchand delivered on her promise to release the results of this examination earlier than ever before.