A broad look at the NGSA

THE National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) results will soon be out and all are hoping that the results are better when compared to the previous year, notably in the key areas of Mathematics and English Language.
Last year, students performed creditably in these two areas, largely because education administrators moved to pointedly address the problems of failure in these two critical subject areas.

The NGSA is unarguably the most strategic assessment designed to promote learning at the primary level, but poor implementation and forward planning on the part of teachers and education officers in the past had stymied its success.
The assessment is threefold. The first in Grade Two is designed to identify pupils’ weaknesses in literacy and numeracy; by Grade Four, these should be corrected; and by Grade Six, they should be able to master basic concepts in these two disciplines and pass their final examinations without much struggle.

These assessments in other words are really diagnostic tools to identify pupils’ weaknesses and correct them before they leave primary school.
Yet, while they have been in place for a long time, only recently corrective action was taken to fully implement the system.

The failure in the past to implement the system has been reflecting in students’ performance in Mathematics and English at the Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC) examinations.
In 2010, the pass rate at CSEC, counting Grades One to Three was 59 per cent; in 2011 it moved to 60 per cent, but declined in 2012 to 37 per cent; it increased to 45 per cent in 2013, before increasing again — but marginally — to 46 per cent in 2014. While students’ performance in English at secondary school has not been impressive, their performance in Mathematics is one to forget.

Counting Grades One to Three, the pass rate in 2010 was 35 per cent; in 2011 it dipped to 30 per cent; in 2012 it declined further to 29 per cent; in 2013 it further declined to 28 per cent, before increasing to an encouraging 38 per cent in 2014.
It is commendable that these statistics were not glossed over by education officials, but were used as a base for careful planning and crafting of strategies to meaningfully address the heavy failures in these two subjects.

Since Mathematics and English are key subjects in the school system at the primary level, it would be important for the Ministry of Education to re-examine the other subjects offered at the National Grade Six Assessment.
These are Science and Social Studies.

While these two subjects are important, in the scheme of things, they are secondary to Mathematics and English. But more importantly, they can be incorporated into Mathematics and English.

If this is done, it would lessen the stress on pupils having to focus on four subject areas at the primary level, and increase the attention given to English and Mathematics.
As long as students can master the basics of literacy and numeracy, a solid foundation will have been set for them to excel in the other subject areas.
And gradually, the high failure rates in English and Mathematics, both at the primary and secondary levels, will progressively diminish.

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