— Minister Manickchand

WITH the country recording increases in student performance at the 2022 National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA), Education Minister Priya Manickchand has noted that the innovative measures employed by the ministry are instrumental in rebuilding the local education system post-COVID-19.

At this year’s examinations, the country recorded a 58.9 per cent increase in Social Studies against 56.3 per cent in 2021 and a 46.5 per cent increase in science for 2022 against the 40.1 recorded in 2021.
The 2022 exams saw three pupils tied for the top spot after gaining 518 marks in the assessment.

The top performing pupils, Neuel Bancroft of Annandale Primary; Angelica Subryan of Cumberland Primary; and Jonathan Gomes of Josel Education Institute, were all awarded places at Queen’s College.
According to the minister, these results collected from the over 16,000 pupils who were registered for the 2022 examinations reflect the impact of the newly implemented systems that were crafted by the ministry to combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the local education system.

Schools across Guyana reopened fully for face-to-face learning on April 25, 2022, for the first time since the COVID-19 virus was detected locally in March 2020.
To deal with the delivery of education and promote recovery from the significant time lost owing to the pandemic as the systems return to normal, the ministry implemented several systems that catered to the needs of the students which included education packages and even consolidated curriculums.

Additionally, the ministry provided textbooks for all subject areas to pupils in these grades across the country, to prepare them for the upcoming examinations. The ministry aggressively rolled out new programmes on the Guyana Learning channel which facilitated recorded lessons in the various subject areas that prepared students for the examinations.

“Getting here was hard but you never heard that from us because we had a duty to make sure that as far as we could we put measures in place and made it easy for you and we did that where there were calls for us to not write the NGSA….Two years on we have had two NGSAs, two CSECs, two CAPEs, shortened the curriculum, shared out textbooks, and brought in new programmes, showing that once you put your mind to it anything can happen,” Minister Manickchand stated.

Even as the ministry managed to record increased performances in Science and Social Studies, the results of the 2022 examinations showed a decrease in the performance in English. The 64.75 pass rate was recorded in this subject compared to 65.7 per cent achieved in 2021.

Mathematics also saw a decline, recording a 34.7 per cent in 2022 against 36.5 per cent in 2021.
The cut-off points for the top schools are: Queen’s College 508; The Bishops’ High School 504; St. Stanislaus College 501; St. Rose’s High 498; St. Joseph High 495; and President’s College 488.

NEW SYSTEMS
In an effort to further level the playing field with placements at the NGSA, Minister Manickchand disclosed that plans are underway to award pupils who emerge as the best letter or essay writer, who has been awarded a place at any A school, a place at the St. Joseph’s High School. She further added that the student who has been awarded the position of the best letter or essay writer and has been awarded a place at any of the top national schools will be awarded a place at Queen’s College.

LEVELED PLAYING FIELD
The minister reiterated the commitment of the government to continue striving toward creating a local education system that would provide the same level of education at schools across the country. The Education Minister stated that the Government is committed to achieving a system where the same level of resources is distributed evenly across Guyana to give each child equal opportunities for success.
The minister, during words of encouragement, told the pupils that they have the opportunity to excel at any school they are placed at.

“I’m saying to you as your Minister of Education on behalf of His Excellency, President Ali, that whichever school you go to you can do well, we will make sure the teaching is the same, the resources are the same and if you have any doubt then just reflect on Monday where Anna Regina did excellently, Berbice, Linden all schools across this country, that are not ‘top schools’ had children who performed excellently.”