— Education Ministry rejects APNU/AFC’s claims

The Ministry of Education has expressed disappointment with regards to a statement issued by the A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) on the recent National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) results.

The ministry, in a release, said the Coalition was unable to unreservedly congratulate the students, parents, teachers and Education Ministry, who, in the midst of a pandemic, persevered and conducted and sat the assessments.

However, the Ministry said it thanks the party for acknowledging publicly that the process was clean and bears the integrity any exam should. APNU/AFC, by stating that the process “could have been brought into disrepute” is clearly and openly acknowledging that the process was not brought into disrepute, the ministry contended.

“As of 2016, the NGSA has been administered by the Caribbean Examinations Council, the premier regional examination body whose examinations most Guyanese have written to start their careers and further studies locally and internationally. This year, in the interest of a fully transparent process that carries the CXC mark of integrity, the role of that examining body was expanded to conduct the exam from the beginning to the end. Far more than they were contracted to do under the APNU/AFC. To bring this reputable examination body into disrepute of being unable to run an examination without interference is a slap in the face of this entity, CARICOM, and hard-working Guyanese. It also brings into question the foundation of many people’s lives,” the ministry said.

The process was entirely a CXC process and “the way the exam was conducted and marked is fully endorsed by CXC”, CXC Director of Operations, Dr. Nicole Manning said.

This year Guyana’s children performed well in harsh circumstances, the ministry related.

“We should all be celebrating that. If the APNU/AFC had listened to the children who wrote the exams they would have heard almost all of the public-school children and many of the private school children crediting for their success, the NGSA Booster programme on the Learning Channel, text books they received, The QuizMe platform and the consolidated curriculum, none of which existed prior to August 2020.

“Still, the ministry believes it was doing what it is mandated to do: respond as the needs arose, a matter about which the ministry remains proud. That party can make itself useful and would be serving its constituency sensibly if it were to encourage parents and students alike to make good use of those products in the absence of normalcy in the school environment and in preparation for next year’s NGSA.

“The APNU/AFC oddly questions why statistics were not given. This year, for the first time, CXC prepared and presented the report and more statistics than are usually given were presented on a screen, no less, complete with bar graphs and charts. The ministry would be happy to help the opposition interpret those statistics. The Ministry of Education is also pleased to say that within the next few days any member of the public would be able to access the performance of any school to see the progress/decline thereat for the last few years. We will do this with great pride and in the interest of transparency and accountability,” the ministry said.

The ministry also noted that “we do not believe we can advance if we do not all acknowledge where we are” and pointed out that “This is a marked departure from the APNU+AFC not publishing the education digest for any of the years it has been in office, a practice the PPP/C government had made normal for all almost its years in office”.

In addition, the ministry made clear that if a mere, routine visit in the presence of cameras and close to 500 persons, all of whom have camera phones, by a minister, whether it be Minister Manickchand or Rupert Roopnaraine who also visited the marking centres several times, could bring the process into disrepute, then the entire process should be thrown through the window and start again.

“Except we do not. Because there is nothing wrong with any such open visit. For the APNU+AFC to have suggested otherwise was an illogical, mischievous, politically opportunistic position that was adopted which simply does not reflect the truth and which they now accept was a flawed position even as they continue to offer enough suggestions to create doubt,” the ministry said as it called on the Coalition to stop playing politics with the education of the nation’s children.