–meanwhile, schools to remain closed for all grades, except 10, 11 & 12

THE Ministry of Education (MoE), on Thursday, announced that it is awaiting word on the timetable dates of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) examinations before moving forward with a decision on when to schedule the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA).
In the meantime, however, schools will continue to remain closed for Grade Six learners and those of all the other Grades except Grades 10, 11 and 12.
Schools in Guyana have been closed since March 2020, as part of the measures implemented to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
However, schools were partially reopened for Grades 10, 11 and 12 students in November, so as to allow them to prepare for the 2021 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE).

“Schools will remain closed for face-to-face learning for the month of February, except for Grades 10, 11 and 12, which we reopened last October. All the other grades will continue to be engaged in the way that they have been engaging,” said Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand on Thursday in a post on the MoE’s official Facebook page. “We are advised by the Ministry of Health (MoH) that we cannot open any other grade and level at this point,” she added.
As pertains to the NGSA, the minister explained that the ministry has not yet decided on a date, but she did confirm that the exam will not be held in its customary March/April schedule time slot.
“If we were to say what we will do now, it would be premature, because we wouldn’t know what the country will look like regarding COVID-19, and we don’t know what the advice from the MoH will be in two to three months,” she said, adding: “We know for sure that the exam will not be held in March/April, when it is usually held. It’s going to be pushed back to closer to July/August.” Held annually, the NGSA is written by Grade Six pupils, with exams in the four core subjects of Mathematics, English Language, Science and Social Studies. The assessment is considered a serious matter for both learners and their parents, as it is used to determine the child’s placement in a secondary school. Secondary schools are awarded based on the child’s performance and ability to meet predetermined cut-off scores for each secondary school.
The minister further stated that the imminent CXC examinations also compound the situation in deciding on a date to schedule the NGSA. She explained that a difficult situation would arise should the two exams overlap.

“CXC has not announced dates for their CSEC and CAPE exams, and the country may not have the capacity to run three major exams at the same time, and maintain the high integrity of the exams,” Minister Manickchand said. “So, because we may not be able to run CSEC, CAPE and NGSA at the same time, we want to hear CXC’s dates for CSEC and CAPE before we schedule our NGSA. As soon as we have a date, we promise to the let the nation know,” she added. She, however, said that should the NGSA exams go forward, it is most likely to be held with exam questions, using curriculum content up to Grade Five, given that the students had their education delivery interrupted over the past year.
Nonetheless, a number of other options have been put forward for how the ministry could move forward with the NGSA.
“Options range from having an assessment as is known, Paper One and Two, to not having an assessment at all, and using Grades Two and Four assessment results. The most popular option among stakeholders is to do a paper one and two mostly, up to the [content] level of Grade Five,” the minister said.