President to give 173 NGSA top students one laptop each – Minister Manickchand

Out of 16,811candidates writing the 2013 National Grade Six Examinations on March 25 and 26, 241 of them from schools in Regions 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10 are eligible for entry into President’s College. However, only 173 of them are bracketed in the top one percent.

The announcement was made today by Minister of Education Priya Manickchand who said that the President Donald Ramotar “was extremely pleased and extremely proud of our children and said that each child falling in the top one percent will be given a laptop.”

Education Minister Priya Manickchand releasing the results of the 2013 National Grade Six Assessment

The candidates, who sat the exams, also wrote the National Grade Two Assessment in 2009 and the National Grade Four Assessment in 2011. The total results are the candidates’ overall performance at the three assessments.

A percentage of the marks gained at the Grades Two and Four Assessments was combined with the marks gained at the Grade Six Assessment in order to determine the candidates’ overall scores. Five percent of each candidate’s Grade Two score in Mathematics and English, and 10 percent of the Grade Four score in the same subjects, were added to 85 percent of each candidate’s score in those subjects. The combined scores in Mathematics and English were added to the scores gained in Science and Social Studies.

The top 10 positions this year were shared by 23 students.  For the top one percent of the students (hat is the top 100 positions) four were from Region Two, 21 from Region Three, 41 from Region Four, nine from Region 6, one from Region Seven, 10 from Region  Ten and 87 from Georgetown.

The top one percent of 173 candidates comprises 80 males and 93 females. The high number reflects the fact that students tied in various positions.

Minister Manickchand commended parents and teachers who worked with the students, along with those who marked the papers and supervised the exams. She observed that today’s release of the results is the earliest since the 1970s.

Strengthening the system

“We are pleased that this year again that our equitable investment in education has paid off and we see not only children in Georgetown are doing well, but children across the country. We are going to continue to ensure that these results are maintained,” she stated.

Noting that Guyana has achieved the second Millennium Development Goal of universal access to primary education, the Minister pointed out that there is still work to be done on the quality of education delivered.

The strengthening of the system is being addressed in many aspects, and this includes work on providing trained teachers. Even though Guyana has moved from having 30% to now having 70% trained teachers in the system, “we have now to achieve the corresponding shift in results…we have definitely seen children doing better,” she said. One of the major issues in this regard is providing accommodation for teachers going into the hinterland. This is being addressed.

She pointed out also that while the paperwork indicates that there are 184 more trained primary school teachers than are needed, this is not so on the ground, “Mainly because some of them don’t want to go into the hinterland and the accommodation issue.”

In terms of resources, Minister Manickchand said that beginning in September, each primary school child will have four text books to take home relevant to the class age. These texts will be for Mathematics, English, Social Studies, Science, and a reading book.

The Ministry will also be looking at the delivery of the curriculum in the various areas.