-197 pupils secure spot in top one per cent

MARGINAL increases in grades for the subject areas of Mathematics and Social Studies were recorded this year at the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA).

This was disclosed on Thursday at the Ministry of Education’s NGSA results release ceremony which was held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.

According to Dr Nicole Manning, the Director of Operations at the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), who provided an overview of the NGSA results, pleasing for the council was the increase recorded in the percentage of pupils earning 50 per cent or more in Mathematics.

“Pleasing for us is the increase for Mathematics and this is important not only to Guyana but to CXC because it is something that as a region we struggle with and so it’s important to see this 40.36 per cent earning 50 per cent and above,” she said.

While last year’s figures for this area stood at 39.87 per cent of pupils scoring 50 per cent and above, this year’s percentage is the highest recorded over the last five years.

Education Minister, Priya Manickchand when asked about this increase stated that while more can be done to increase this percentage even more, any improvement is a good improvement.

“What we have to do in the ministry is work to make sure there is sustained improvement in the teaching-learning process, supported by materials so that we can see movement up that scale,” Manickchand said.

This, she said would include the training and retraining of teachers, the provision of resources like textbooks and other things that teachers might need to have and importantly the supervision of how that happens.
She added, “Teachers stand in front of the classroom and teach their hearts out but I think how we are measuring whether that teaching is effective not only from classroom to classroom but centrally from the ministry is perhaps where we need to strengthen more, so that’s a work in progress.”

However, on another positive note, Dr Manning told the gathering that there was a slight reduction in the percentage of candidates receiving zero for Mathematics.

Meanwhile, the Director said that some 62.88 per cent of the pupils scored over 50 per cent in Social Studies, which she noted was a whopping increase compared to last year and previous years.

For English, there was an overall increase in the percentage of candidates earning 50 per cent and above and this is also the highest recorded over the last five years at 66.79 per cent.

In the sciences, however, there was a slight reduction in terms of the percentage of candidates earning 50 per cent and above from 55.11 per cent in 2023 to 54 per cent this year.

On another positive note, Manning said that this was the first year with a Spanish cohort as quite a few candidates sat the exams which were done in Spanish by CXC.

This year, some 15,285 candidates sat the exams and the highest possible total score obtainable was 504.24. As such, the highest obtainable score by subject stood at 132.77 for Mathematics, 122.63 for English, 122.06 for Social Studies and 126.78 for Science.

As a result, 197 candidates across the country attained scores that placed them in the top one per cent. They all secured a spot at Queen’s College.

Additionally, the Education Ministry has provided the cut-off scores for each Sixth Form schools. 495.45 is the cut off mark for Queen’s College, 492.62 is for The Bishops’ High School, 490.49 for St. Stanislaus College, 487.44 for St Rose’s High, 484.5 for St. Joseph’s High and 480.12 for President’s College.