Latest update September 15th, 2026 10:20 AM
National Grade Six Assessment 2014 and the Bell-Shaped Curve
DEAR EDITOR,
Kindly permit me the chance to make some pertinent observations and suggestions in regards to the National Grade Six Assessment 2014. Thank you.
It was my intention to do a statistical analysis (never my favourite subject) on the Grade Six Assessment 2014 results, but much to my chagrin, the results were not published, as was intimated by the Minister of Education. Only one percent of the results (The good part?) is published, but nevertheless, ‘numbers don’t lie’, like the popular TV show in the USA tells us, I will still try to get my point across.
The results stated that the top one percent, or those in the 99 percentile,numbering 169 students, scored 512 to 533 points.
This begs the question: What happened to the remaining 15,058 students?
Where in the percentile range of 1 to 99% did they fall, and by how much?
This exercise is not an attempt to politicize the education system, or denigrate any of those teachers, students, parents or administrators associated with it, but education progresses best when it is exposed to new ideas and challenges. After all, it is education. It cannot remain static in a changing world.
To go beyond the top students and discover how the Assessment affected other students, we ought to take a look at the Bell-Shaped Curve.
James Dalton Bell, a farmer, mind you, was observing the trajectory of fallen objects, when to put it in a nutshell, he discovered variations in a specific frequency, which when graphed, produced a bell-shaped curve. And the rest is history, so to speak.
In a nutshell, if you have 50 boys run 400 metres around a track and record their time, when placed on a graph the number of boys versus time, the connected dots should form a bell-shaped curve.
The Bell-shaped curve caused a revolution in the scientific field and on invading education caused such a furor, which is still going on, to some degree. You see, the Bell-shaped curve can assess IQ (intelligent quotient), which the ability to recall information on a standardized test. The results of these tests determine who is admitted to which schools.
It has its detractors.
For example, if you plot the Grade 6 Assessment results on a graph and it represented the ideal results, using the American method of evaluating tests:
90-100%, which is 486-540 points would be an Excellent or A-grade
80-89% “ “ 432-485 “ “ “ Good or B-grade
70-79% “ “ 378-431 “ “ “ Fair or C-Grade
It is not necessary to mention Poor -D or Fail- F scores, since they wouldn’t matter.
Without going into too many technical details, and since educators – at least in the USA – want to see how many students gain scores of C or higher, with their expectation being, that a school district ought to be able to get 70% of their students within that range.
70% of 15,227 is 10,589 students from the Grade 6 Assessment
The Bell-shaped curve claims that under ideal conditions the success rate should be 70%.
How far or near to the ideal Guyana’s education system is determines what happens next.
It is my opinion, since I am not privy to the data to back it up, that Guyana is seriously behind the eight ball, so to speak, and most importantly Guyana’s educational system is not structured to significantly affect the Assessment outcomes in the future.
A copy of this letter will be sent to Education Minister Priya Manickchand, since I am suggesting that should convene a panel of qualified but enthusiastic and impartial members in order to investigate the state of Guyana’s education system with a view to making constructive recommendations.
Thank you.
Albert R. Cumberbatch, Ph. D.
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