Of the 14,386 children 11 years and over who wrote the National Grade Six Assessment in April, a (generous) maximum of 3,000 are happy with their results. Having been placed under severe pressure for at least a year prior to the examination to ‘do well’ and ‘get a good school,’ possibly 8,000 children are now sorely disappointed in themselves. And this should not be the case.
As has been pointed out for years now in these columns, the eleven-plus examination—as it is now and in all of its previous forms—continues to highlight what is wrong with the education system, whilst no concerted effort is being made to fix it.
Not to take away from the accomplishments of the top one per cent or the other children who have done well enough to secure places in the top schools, how are we really sure that the examination is a good measure of academic achievement? Is it possible that the top students are just better at learning by rote? Research has proven that because each individual learns at his or her own pace, standardized tests are probably not the best way to measure learning. There are growing calls the world over for a moving away from such assessment methods.
However, we can say with certainty that such calls are unlikely to gain traction in Guyana anytime soon. Such a drastic shift would require not just changes in policy, but massive adjustments at all levels of the education system, which would take years of preparation. Let’s just say that the eleven-plus lottery—as unnecessary, stressful and as unfair as it is—is destined to remain with us for years to come.
In a perfect world, this examination would be used merely as an assessment tool and not as a test which determines what secondary school a particular child attends. This would see the results being used by the Ministry of Education for research and planning purposes, in which case the results would not need to be published, except as data. But for this to even be contemplated, there would need to be several more secondary schools, particularly in certain districts that are underserved. In addition, those schools and the ones that already exist would need to all be brought to a certain minimum standard. This would involve not just improving the physical infrastructure of these institutions of learning, but upgrades in the delivery of education. And of course this would require different methods of such delivery being taught at the Cyril Potter College of Education and the University of Guyana. All of this points to sweeping changes being made across the sector, which might seem radical, but would in fact raise the level of local education from its current place in the doldrums.
Meanwhile, it continues to be reassuring that private schools, some of which (like the Marian Academy) focus on producing a ‘rounded’ student, steadily garner decent results. These institutions fly in the face of the ‘cram-learning’ methods employed elsewhere and are therefore worthy of study if we are truly serious of changing our education fortunes.
Minister of Education Dr Rupert Roopnaraine, at the release of this year’s results on Tuesday last, expressed disappointment with the trends he had observed. The ministry noted that the students’ performance in English Language and Social Studies remained consistent with what obtained in the years prior. However, the Mathematics and Science scores this year fell below previous years. He announced a collaboration with the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) to improve the quality of all primary grade assessments.
And according to a GINA press release, the Minister also stated that consultations will be held with education stakeholders across the country to ensure that all assessments conform to regional and international test development and administration standards and expectations to facilitate consistent, reliable measurements and tracking of pupils’ performance.
Hinting at changes to come, the Minister said the analysis of the 2016 NGSA results will have deep implications for the instructional approaches adopted by teachers going forward, according to GINA. It also quoted the Minister as saying that the current method of drilling and teaching to the test that had been adopted over the years will not benefit pupils “in this new dispensation.”
The fact is that this method has never really benefited pupils, it was employed purely as a means of producing candidates for the top schools in the country, which served to raise the profile of the primary schools those pupils came from. The referred to “new dispensation” will need to factor in the retraining of teachers.
