THE 2021 National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) will not be held during its customary March/April period. However, no concrete decision has yet been made on when the assessment will be held or whether it will be held at all.
This was shared by Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, during a virtual press conference, held on Monday. It was on Monday that public schools partially reopened, allowing classes for the Grades 10, 11 and 12 students who are preparing to write the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) examinations.

She revealed that the Ministry has been receiving requests from primary schools for a partial reopening for the Grade Six pupils. However, Minister Manickchand emphasised that no decision has yet been made for the NGSA.
“There are different things we’re doing with the Grade Six cohort but we have not made a decision as yet about whether we’re writing [the NGSA] and, if so, when, or what form that paper will take. As soon as we take that decision we are going to let our parents and students know and our teachers,” the Minister noted.

She added that: “What I can tell you right now is that the exams will not be written in March/April. We are definitely going to be postponing if we write it at all. We don’t know as yet; we are looking at if we could do just a paper one, to see if that is the fairest thing we can do for the children.”
The Minister noted that with the NGSA being a placement examination created and administered locally to allocate the Grade Six pupils to a secondary school, there are other options that could be looked at by the Ministry of Education to assign the pupils.

“[NGSA] is our exam. We can set it; we can determine how we write it or whether we write it. It’s an assessment to place pupils. Are there other ways that we can place students into secondary schools? We are looking at that,” the Minister explained

“We’re looking at if we can test just up to the Grade Five level and that all depends on when we go back to school. We have to be careful. In the meanwhile, we have printed all the notes pupils need. We have given all the text books they need for Mathematics, Social Studies, Science and English Language. We have specific worksheets, and we are supplementing all the text books that they need, just to try to make them a little more prepared.”

The NGSA is held annually on two days during the “Easter Vacation” and tests the pupils in Papers One and Two in four subject areas, namely Mathematics, English Language, Social Studies and Science.
Based on the scores attained, the learners are assigned to secondary schools based on the cut off scores the secondary schools have.