FOLLOWING public comments on the new National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) 2016 layout, the Ministry of Education (MoE) has sought to clear the air on the new measures that will be used to boost the examination system. According to a statement from the MoE yesterday regarding candidate information, the two papers require different sets of information. For Paper One, the answer sheets will have the candidate’s information – candidate name and identification number – already printed or ‘pre-slugged’.

ELECTRONIC MARKING
The statement further informed that, “the candidates are required to write/sign their names as a mechanism to ensure that the candidate for whom the paper was prepared is actually the one who answers the questions. This will have no implications for marking because these answer sheets are all marked electronically.”

Chief Education Officer, Olato Sam

This new criteria is part of the new layout for each of the four subjects written in the NGSA, which has two papers (Paper 1 and Paper 2).
“Paper Two, the cover page of the answer sheet is divided and perforated. The test code, subject, and Candidate Number are all required on both sides, while the Test Code and Subject will already be printed and candidates will be required to write in their Candidate Number – this information is provided for them on the timetables given to every candidate,” the statement explained as the Ministry sought to bring clarity to the issue.
Meanwhile, former Minister of Education Priya Manickchand is contending that students will have to write their names on their exam papers for the NGSA 2016.
Speaking yesterday at a People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) press conference, Manickchand stated that, “this new arrangement, which the Ministry has confirmed, can only be seen as a thoughtless move on the one hand, or one that is sinister on the other hand… and it could shake the integrity of the examination system, which the country has spent many years building.”
According to Manickchand, this new system will allow for subjectivity, but the MOE said that on the right half of the paper only, candidates are also required to write in the name of their school, their full name, date of birth and gender. And the right side of the sheets are all detached prior to the commencement of the marking of Paper Two and retained for administrative purposes only.
The information that would be evident during the marking process would be the Test Code, Subject, and Candidate Number only. These are administrative mechanisms that will have no bearing on the marking process whatsoever, the MoE said.
Reports indicated that Chief Education Officer, Olato Sam, also dismissed the concerns of Manickchand about the new layout format for the NGSA examinations, which will see students having to write their names on the examination papers.

NO WORRY
“There is absolutely nothing that one should be worried or concerned about when it comes to the new layout. Attempts to cause worry now may just be a move to cause unnecessary panic,” said Sam, according to media reports.
The Chief Education Officer assured that “at no point in time, in any marking environment, will the candidates be known by anybody marking.”
Approximately 14,500 candidates are expected to sit NGSA on Wednesday, April 27 and Thursday, April 28, 2016.