With schools across the country still closed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Education plans to move ahead with the sitting of the National Grade Six Assessment Examinations this year.
Education Priya Manickchand announced this morning that the NGSA exams will take place on the 4th and 5th of August. The exams are usually hosted in March and April.
Prior to the examination dates, the Ministry will offer mock exams to prepare the students.
There are no plans right now to reopen schools before the examinations.
The Minister explained that the examination will be fair and will not just cover work that should have been done in the 6th grade.
“Usually, you would have 40 weeks of learning, we did not add anything new at all, that would be unfair and impractical at this stage, What we did was take out, subtract, remove from the 40 weeks what we thought would have been covered already or will be covered later on. So, what is left is what the experts here at the Ministry of Education believe children at that level absolutely need, the skills actually needed”, Manickchand said.
Based on the timeline that has been set for the sitting of the examination, parents, and teachers have been given a 20-week period to get the children fully prepared for the examination, which will determine their high school placement.
There are 14, 300 students listed to sit the exams. The Education Ministry has announced that the students will be given a “Care Package” containing worksheets, books, and other material to assist them in their preparation.
The package will only be provided for students in the public education system.
The students who will be writing this years NGSA examinations have been out of school for an entire year and were not exposed to any in class and face to face learning.
While some teachers provided online classes, it is suspected that a large number of students were unable to benefit from those virtual sessions.
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