— improved performance recorded in Math, hinterland communities

IMPROVEMENTS have been recorded in Mathematics and in the performance of children from hinterland communities, sources at the Ministry of Education (MoE) disclosed ahead of today’s announcement of the results for this year’s National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA).

On Tuesday, credible sources at the Education Ministry told Guyana Chronicle that this year saw an improvement in performance in Mathematics.

In 2018, it was reported that 38 per cent of the 14,145 students who wrote the 2018 NGSA passed mathematics. This was below the 45 per cent passes recorded in 2017. As a result of the deficiencies seen in this subject area, the MoE continued its ‘Math camps’ where over 1000 children benefited since its introduction in 2018. Through these camps, Grade Six pupils were afforded the opportunity to attend extra mathematics classes from 09:00hrs to 12:00hrs on Saturdays at various schools.

These camps also followed the $48M the government injected into emergency intervention to strengthen the teaching capacity of mathematics at the Grade Six level in public schools in 2016.

The ministry will announce the results of the 2019 NGSA at a press conference slated for 09:00 hours at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD). At this press conference, the status of the other three subjects, Science, Social Studies and English, will be made known. This year’s top performers will also be announced.

In addition to the improvements recorded in Mathematics, the well-placed source indicated that there has also been improvement seen in the performances of children in the hinterland regions of Guyana.

Due to Guyana’s unique geography, there have been some disparities in the delivery of educational content for hinterland and coastal communities. Speaking to this newspaper recently, Education Minister, Dr. Nicolette Henry, stressed that the integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) into the education system is key for bridging disparities that exist and for modernising the sector

In recent times, the ministry began introducing “Smart Classrooms”. The Smart Classroom Solution is a complete digital education package consisting of Samsung tablets, televisions, a server and related software.

Through this, teachers and students can engage in interactive learning which combines various elements (such as multimedia components: videos, audio and photographs) with communication technologies, that create a learning space that transcends geographic location.

In preparation for the NGSA this year, the MoE also engaged in several other interventions geared at bolstering the sector as a whole. Among these were the training and professional development sessions for teachers across the different subject areas, subject camps where children received extra lessons and remedial classes.

The MoE also conducted diagnostic examinations, better known as mock exams, which gave perspective to what gaps existed in the education sector. These mock exams also served to give the children a feel of the examinations so that they could be more relaxed in the actual examination.