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Scrapping NGSA will be a tipping point for education reform in Guyana
Dear Editor,
The announcement by Minister of Education Priya Manickchand that the Ministry of Education is actively considering the possibility of scrapping the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) is probably the best news coming out of the Ministry of Education in a long time. This major education reform initiative will be a game changer – a tipping point – that drives the modernisation and reimagining of education in Guyana, and will have a ripple effect across CARICOM, placing Guyana in a trailblazer role.
I have argued that the NGSA is a colonial relic, the root of all educational evil. It was a pernicious system set up to sort and sift students, allocating the small percentage of the academically gifted to 6 top schools, while others are relegated to schools of poorer quality. The rich folks like this system as QC, Bishops, etc., give them bragging rights among their friends. Rich folks usually care about their own children, not all children. If there is a system that stratifies people and creates winners and losers, that’s not a problem for them as long as they are in the winner category. The affluent might object to dismantling the NGSA, which was kept on for six decades after Independence. But the time for dismantling the NGSA has come as it has no usefulness in a new, modern economy and society. The sooner we abandon it, the better for us.
The NGSA is what is called high stress, high pressure, “high-stakes” testing. In our primary schools, all energies are focused on preparing for the NGSA in the sixth grade. Teachers “drill and kill,” teaching to the test and some say teaching the test. Extra lessons proliferate, snapping up the free time of our children. Some say authentic education is lost when the education system is driven by a test – a single measure – that determines a child’s entire future and life chances. After NGSA, a few rise and the majority falls and fails and many eventually drop out of school, at a time when we need as many skilled, trained workers as possible. Last week, we saw how students were praying, parents were holding up cheerleading placards, pictures were posted of the breakfast and lunch we feed the students, some companies placed ads in the papers wishing students well – all part of the high-stakes drama! Why did we allow the NGSA to continue for so long after Independence and decolonisation? Where were our brilliant education designers, our education reformers, the children advocates to allow the NGSA malpractice to continue? The NGSA negates learning styles and multiple intelligences. It’s a “one size fits all” test. A popular cartoon derides single measure standardized testing. The cartoon says, “For a fair selection, everybody has to take the same exam: Please climb that tree,” said the teacher to the bird, monkey, penguin, elephant. Someone said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
So, if we get rid of the NGSA, what do we do with the top 6 schools? The students who usually get placed at the top 6 schools are mostly “academically gifted,” or “gifted and talented.” They are the “in spite” of children who will do well regardless of poor teachers or poor schools. They are self-driven, capable of accelerated learning and advanced learning. They learn at a faster pace, and they can do college work earlier. We can convert the top 6 schools to “special focus” academies and ask only those students who want to get in, to do an optional admissions test to be admitted to those special programs. For instance, we can create an Academy of Medicine/Health Sciences, Academy of Law, a Stem Academy or School of Science, Math and Engineering, a School of the Arts, an Oil and Gas Academy, or “Early College” High Schools. All these academies can award both a high school diploma and an Associate degree at graduation. This will require our education designers and experts to create new high school models. With the ongoing building of new schools and a new push to upgrade all existing high schools, students can automatically attend better quality neighborhood schools. So, let’s start the conversations and brainstorming, and get public input on how we may restructure our education system. Thanks to our education minister for opening the door!
Sincerely,
Dr. Jerry Jailall
Civil Society Advocate
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