Guyana should scrap NGSA; it’s unfair to students – Director of Economics, CDB

Jul 08, 2019 News

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Guyana should scrap its 11-plus secondary school entrance exam, the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA).
Every student deserves to have a good quality of education, not just the ones who are successful at this stage.
That is the view of Director of Economics at the Caribbean Development Bank, Justin Ram. He specialises in Development Economics, and made this assertion while addressing a gathering during the launch of the 10th edition of Guyana Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI)’s Business Guyana Magazine, last Friday.

In his presentation, Ram had suggested that, as revenue kicks in from oil, the disparities in provision of education could be bridged with the use of technologies that allow teachers to transmit the best lessons to students in multiple schools.
“Too often, I see that across the Caribbean,” Ram said, adding that the current system inhibits the opportunities of many.
He says that if a country is ready to invest in something, it needs to invest in human capital.
“It’s not just getting rid of the exam,” he explained, but it’s ensuring that every student can access the best quality of education at any school/location.
“And now, technology will allow us to do that.”

BARBADOS ENDEAVOURS
Ram commended Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, for announcing that her Government would focus on abolishing the “iniquity” of the Barbados Secondary School’s Entrance Examination (BSSEE), for the very reason that it does not give everyone a fair chance.
Barbados Today reported that, in early June, Mottley said “There is no doubt in my mind that what we are facing is people who have been ignored and discarded and for whom there has not been sufficient attention. Everybody has a talent… Every single human being has a talent… we are discarding too many and we are paying the price.”

WHAT WOULD REPLACE THE 11+ EXAM?
Of course, the question that arose from sections of the Barbadian public was: What would replace the examination if it is scrapped?
The island’s Minister of Education, Santia Bradshaw, spoke recently about considerations for continuous assessment.
She stated “A number of the students, who are performing below average, could perhaps have done with better assessments from an earlier age, having been identified by the teachers as well as the principals, to be able to alert us to some of the challenges students have been having. I think that it points to the fact that we need to test not just on maths and English, but to look at well-rounded students.”
Bradshaw said she intended to ensure that schools were equipped with adequate resources and that students were exposed to diagnostic testing at an early age so that they would be provided with needed interventions.
She also insisted that there was a need to accept that students would not perform at the same level because they do not all learn in the same way.
“So our focus now has to be on differentiated instruction. It also has to be on making accommodations to help people to learn whether that is in the classroom, out of the classroom. It also speaks to the fact that we need to make learning more practical.”
Mottley suggested: “We need to look and see whether we can set up a middle school that will take children in first and second form and help them to decide which subjects they like, such as sciences, languages, commerce, auto mechanics, carpentry and the like, so they can choose the areas in which they want to specialise.”

ABUSE OF CHILDREN AND MENTAL HEALTH
The conversation about the 11+ exam has also reared its head in Trinidad and Tobago, this year. According to the Trinidad Express, Director of the T&T Children’s Authority, Safiya Noel, spoke of the mindset cultivated of the exam, in a news conference, in April, calling it abuse of children “in the vein of trying to cause them to be successful”.
She cautioned parents to utilise self control if their children aren’t placed in the schools of their choice.
“It doesn’t mean that you have a stupid child, it doesn’t mean you have a child who’s not intelligent, it doesn’t mean you do not have a child that would not be successful,” said Noel.

POOR PERFORMANCE IN GUYANA
In Guyana, every year, the Ministry of Education focuses on highlighting and honouring the top one percent of performers. But accompanying that are devastating statistics about the remaining students.
This year, a majority of the 14,300 students who sat NGSA failed to meet the 50 percent pass grade in Mathematics, Science and Social Studies. According to statistics released by the Ministry of Education, this has been a trend for several years. It was especially alarming to the general public that, in 2016, a mere 13.85 percent of the students who wrote, in that year, managed to pass Mathematics. This year, that figure is 42 percent. The Education Ministry has stated that it is continuing to implement the Emergency Mathematics Intervention Plan, with aspects including training for teachers in content and methodology, facilitating fortnightly cluster meetings in all regions, recruitment of Mathematics coordinators and monitors, training of officers and school administrators to supervise the teaching of the subject and enhancement of public relations and parent involvement in the education of children.
English is the only subject for which a majority of students have passed this year. Still, about 6000 students are below the 50 percent mark.
Yet, less than 30 percent of students in the Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine passed Mathematics. Those regions recorded the poorest performances in all subject areas, with none of those regions recording a majority of passes in any of the subject areas. To put some of those statistics into perspective, only 153 out of the 978 students in region One passed Mathematics; only 67 of the 350 students in Region Nine passed Mathematics; and only 140 of the 728 students in Region Nine passed Mathematics.
No administrative region was able to secure a majority of passes in all subject areas. Only Georgetown, which is counted as a separate district, was able to secure a majority of passes in all subject areas.

GOVERNMENT’S EFFORTS
During a press conference on Friday, Minister of Education, Nicolette Henry, addressed the performance of students at NGSA this year, and disparities in the provision of quality education. She noted that Government has been working to ensure comprehensive curriculum reform; a process that she said was last executed in 1976.
“I think it’s apparent to anyone that to have a curriculum in place for more than 40 years is certainly not in alignment with delivering modern education strategies and information content. It also suggests, in large ways, that several generations have benefitted from the same curriculum, which is certainly not desirable in the delivery of education.”
She also addressed Government’s efforts to reduce the disparity in education between Hinterland and Coastland communities, touching on the topic of teacher’s training. She said that Government has managed to provide training for teachers in all 10 administrative regions, and has improved the conditions under which teachers work. She said that, prior to the current administration coming into power, region eight had been without a teacher’s training college for over a decade. But last year, an initiative was launched to provide teacher’s training there.
The Minister provided that Government is beginning to see some amount of progress. She said she hopes to see significant improvements in performance some 5+ years down the line.

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