THE Grade Nine students who completed their 2013/2014 academic year and their National Grade Nine Assessment ought to be placed at secondary schools, based on their end-of-year results.

This was according to Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Education, Mrs. Suelle Findlay-Williams, who noted that this decision was forwarded to the Regional Education Officers by the Exams Division.
The ‘Primary Tops’ is the common name for the secondary school extensions of primary schools, where students who underperform at the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) are placed. According to the Ministry’s ‘Criteria for Placement,’ Grade Six students after the NGSA exams are placed according to marks obtained and their place of residence.
The ‘Primary Tops’ include classes up to Grade Nine or Form Three, after which the students write the National Grade Nine Assessment and are afforded a chance to be placed at a secondary school.
“The Grade Nine Assessment results should not affect the student,” the Ministry’s Public Relations Officer said.

However, the reality on the ground is proving somewhat different at some, if not all ‘Primary Tops’ schools.
Several teachers at ‘Primary Tops’ schools, when contacted by the Guyana Chronicle, contended that up to the first week of school they had still not been notified that their students were to be placed at secondary schools based on their end-of-year results.

LATE RELEASE

The Guyana Chronicle was prompted to query the placement of Grade Nine Students after several teachers expressed concerns over the late release of the National Grade Nine Assessment results.
According to the teachers, this is usually the basis for placement of the students at secondary schools, and when they are released late many of their students end up as drop-outs because they are not placed at secondary schools before the start of the new academic year.
One teacher (who spoke to this newspaper on the condition of anonymity) said, “Last year when the students wrote the assessment, their results were not released until January this year. I had a few students from my batch that had the ability to perform, but by the time we went to look for them, some of them had jobs and others were home. They had no intention of continuing with school and they had lost the entire first term of the year.”
This year, the National Grade Nine Assessment results are expected to be released next month.
Another teacher told the Guyana Chronicle that until they are advised by the Regional Education Department their position is a ‘wait and see’ one.
The teacher said, “We will have to wait and see in the new week if the Regional Education Department will let us know, but as right now the students who finished Grade Nine have either gotten jobs and some continue to come to school, which means they are joining the new Grade Nine class and are repeating the work they already did. This is a problem, especially in terms of discipline, because when they repeat they are not really doing anything new and they are not interested.”