Latest update February 14th, 2025 8:22 AM
NGSA GRADES REVEAL PART OF THE STORY
Education has historically played a critical role in the nation’s development. Guyanese have always prided themselves on being a highly literate and educated society. This is due to the high standards of its education system inherited from Britain and nourished in the early post-independence period.
Recently, the nation’s pride in education has been beset by a series of problems, which can be overcome with good planning and resources. Despite the problems, Guyana has recorded its best overall pass rate in English at this year’s National Grade Six Assessment, which determines which high school students will attend in September. However, the declining academic performance in Mathematics is a setback.
While the nation applauds the success of the outstanding students, led by Westfield Preparatory’s Nalia Rahaman who made history by attaining a perfect score, the results did not present the full picture of the education system.
The results showed that 60 percent of the 14,145 students who wrote the exam scored 50 percent or more in English compared to 54 percent last year. However, in Mathematics, 38 percent of the students who sat the examination obtained 50 percent or more, which obviously means that a worrying 62 percent fell below.
In relation to the slippage in Mathematics and the other science subjects, the Minister of Education has acknowledged that more has to be done to help improve the performances.
The low pass rate in Mathematics can rightfully be viewed as a national crisis and should be urgently addressed. Excelling at exams requires hard work and sacrifice, access to quality learning resources, parents, teachers, books, lessons, money, qualified teachers and a supportive environment.
All children should have access to high quality education to help them strengthen their academic skills. Society must do away with the culture of shame for seeking academic support for literacy, numeracy and academic enrichment, which is prevalent in many corners of the country. This is the kind of support that often eludes poor students who attend under-resourced schools, especially those who live in poor neighbourhoods or with parents who have no way to access funds to help their children obtain quality education.
In Guyana, women are roughly 51.6 percent of the population which is an almost equal proportion of the gender make-up. However, it is noteworthy that of the 14,145 students who wrote the assessment, only 37 percent were male.
The seepage of large numbers of male students from the formal education system could have severe societal consequences. We cannot sit idly by and allow this to continue, because when these uneducated youths cannot find decent paying jobs to feed themselves, they will more than likely join the criminal class. This is a burning issue that must be addressed by all stakeholders.
The truth is, the more educated and skilled the population, the greater are the chances of the country achieving successful social and economic development, with the main spin-off being less crime and a better quality of life.
Like so many other areas of life in Guyana, the education system is at a crossroads in the context of the low pass rate in the hard sciences and the high school dropout rate by males. The view of many is that the current system, which receives a huge slice of the nation’s annual budget, is producing students who are not sufficiently equipped to function in the 21st century.
The onus is on the government to retain qualified math and science teachers. Given the NGSA results, the Ministry of Education must develop a comprehensive strategy to boost the pass rates. It must also restructure the school curriculum and articulate a clear vision to improve the education system.
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