95 percent braved pandemic, wrote NGSA exams

Parents taking their children to the Winfer Gardens Primary School to write their examination

THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION said 95 percent of the 14,400 students registered to write
this year’s National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) test showed up on the opening day at the 503
centres country-wide.

A parent giving her son a loving embrace before he enters the examination
centre at the St. Angela’s Primary School

The ministry assured that it will find a solution for the 5 percent who did not show up for the
annual local exams in the four subject areas: English (papers 1 and 2), Science, Social Studies
and Mathematics in the 11 education districts which include the capital city, Georgetown, as a
separate entity and those in the regular 10 Administrative Regions.
Dut to the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, the ministry added 33 new exam centres to minimise
travelling long distances thus reducing their chances of being infected along the way.
Additionally, the ministry also established separate emergency centres to accommodate students
who may have tested positive for deadly virus or others in quarantine prior to the start of the two-
day exam.
The 2021 NGSA examination ends today with students writing Mathematics and Socials Studies.
A delegation comprising Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, Chief Education Officer,
(CEO), Dr Marcel Hutson, and several Education Officers visited examination centres to observe
the process and to ensure that all established guidelines and protocols were in place and being
followed.
There were no incidents on Wednesday, and the ministry was confident of similar evaluations on
the final day.
The Ministry lauded the bravery of nation’s teachers and the 14,000-odd NGSA students who
braved the deadly pandemic to instruct their charges and the latter to turn out in their numbers to
write the exams.

Chief Education Officer, Dr. Marcel Hutson encouraging students at the F.E.
Pollard Primary School[/caption]

“We are also thankful for the teachers who stepped up and delivered under conditions that they
have never faced before. The Ministry applauds their willingness and commitment to serve their
students and we look forward to working with those teachers to educate the future generations of
students,” the Ministry’s said in a release to the media.

The release further added that “their efforts together with the several interventions the
Ministry had implemented to assist our teachers and pupils to prepare for the examination
must be commended”.