THE Ministry of Education (MoE) on Friday launched its National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) booster programme to assist pupils who are preparing to sit the two-day examination in August. Speaking at the event held at the National Centre of Educational Resources Development (NCERD) building at Kingston, Georgetown, subject minister, Priya Manickhand said the programme is designed to help the pupils. The education minister noted that while it has been difficult navigating learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the ministry has been doing its best, and will continue to find innovative ways to reach students and pupils across the country.
“We came up, we rose up, we responded, and we responded robustly, not with one thing or another, not for boys and not for girls, not for Georgetown, and forgetting the hinterland people. We responded across this country,” she declared, adding:

“We refashioned this learning channel to bring timetable scheduled lessons that were in accordance with the curriculum.”
Minister Manickchand stated that the programme will also provide some sense of comfort to pupils, as they will be able to access revision tools via the programme, which will be broadcasted on the Guyana Learning Channel weekly. “We don’t want students going into the room and feeling so heavily unprepared for this exam, that they feel like we are committing an assault on them, or we are hurting them emotionally or psychologically; we don’t want that. So, this is why this programme here is being launched today,” Minister Manickchand said. The minister further disclosed that the programme will also be made available via radio and flash drives for pupils living in the hinterland regions who do not have access to television. Additionally, the ministry has also procured a number of satellites and televisions to set up in several hinterland villages. Giving an overview of the programme, the channel’s head, Aniesha Mohamed said the programme is designed to have a tutor in every home, and will see pupils doing revision work with past examination papers.

The programme, she added, is filled with a combination of appropriate information, quality graphics, a multitude of colours, and local content to make lessons more engaging for pupils. The programme is scheduled to be aired from Monday to Friday, between the hours of 10:30am and 3:30pm, and rebroadcasted between 5 and 7pm every day. Pupils can also tune in to the channel on Saturdays and Sundays, for another rebroadcast from 9am to 5pm.
The ministry had announced that some 14,000 pupils are expected to sit the examination on August 4 and 5.
The NGSA will include Papers One and Two, as per normal, but the tests will be set based on a 20-week consolidated curriculum that the ministry has developed to fit the ongoing situation, where the pupils remain out of school.
Additionally, the pupils will be getting two mock examinations prior to the NGSA sitting.