MANY of the top secondary schools in the country will have an increase in the number of entrants this year, creating a ripple effect that has resulted in 1,600 “primary top” pupils now being able to attend a secondary school.

Queen’s College (QC), Bishops’ High, St Stanislaus College, and St Joseph High along with the Berbice High and New Amsterdam Multilateral High are among the schools that will see increases this year in the number of students awarded places after writing the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA).

This was revealed by Minister of Education Priya Manickchand on Friday, as she announced results of the 2021 NGSA. Pupils are placed into secondary schools based on their performances at the NGSA, and can be placed at one of the schools located in the city, if they meet the cut-off score each school is assigned, or they are placed at schools in their regions.

At QC, where the school would previously have had an intake of 120 students, this year 167 children were awarded places at the country’s premier secondary school.

“We have 175 seats at QC, because we started a whole new classroom there, but you will see only 167 students placed there because when we cut off at 510 [marks], 167 children reached that place. When we go to 509, it is 29 children more, so the child who did not get QC didn’t get QC because we couldn’t fit 29 more children in there,” Manickchand explained, as she made the announcement.

At Bishops’ High, which follows QC, that school will cater to 145 new pupils this year, up from the 100 students usually placed at this school.

St Stanislaus College, which also usually accommodates 100 students, will be taking in 120 students in the 2021 cohort. At St Joseph, the intake has been increased by 50 to now accommodate 150 students there. Outside of the city, at Berbice High, the intake has been increased by 45 students, while at the New Amsterdam Multilateral intake has increased by 100.

St Rose’s High was unable to see any increased capacity due to the school currently being under construction.

The intake increases at schools across the country is part of the MoE’s wider plans to achieve universal secondary education and improve secondary education all across the country. One of the ministry’s main goals in this plan is to ensure that every child leaving primary school gets into a secondary school as opposed to some being placed at a “primary top.”

A primary-top school is where children are placed when they did not meet the cut-off scores for placement at a secondary school, and there is no more space at any of the secondary schools. The primary-top schools at times are overcrowded, lack resources and the students are underprivileged.

Moreover, whereas secondary schools usually go up to Grade 11, primary tops go up to only Grade Nine; after that level, the students must try to gain a spot in a secondary school or have other alternatives, and many become school dropouts.

“We are trying very hard to make space; we walked school to school and we tried to find as many spaces as possible in the schools so that we can remove children from what we know as primary tops. Because of that we were able to move 1600 children out of primary tops. This year we are giving 1600 students a better chance,” Manickchand remarked.

Manickchand emphasised that the ministry is working along with the secondary schools to ensure that they have all the resources they need to appropriately accommodate the increased intake.

“We are not just throwing the children in and say, ‘here take them.’ We are making sure they have furniture, textbooks and teachers and everything they need to accommodate those larger numbers of children,” she explained.

Manickchand also noted that the ministry is working assiduously to also improve the integrity of all secondary schools across the country, and remove the stigma in Guyana where a student is thought not to be smart enough if they are not able to attain a place at a top secondary school.

“This year we are beginning, and I commit to you personally that you will be able to have an enriching, fulfilling solid education at any secondary school you go to. Because that will be our efforts; we are dedicating that to you. We are beginning it now and you will see changes in secondary education that will mean you are not a failure if you did not get into one of these top secondary schools,” Manickchand said.

She also called on parents to ensure that they speak with their children to not put down their peers who did not do as well as they did simply because they did not make it into a particular school.