Dead child writes Grade Six Exams

Aug 06, 2009 News

There seems to be some irregularities with the National Grade Six Assessment as the parents of a child, who died last year, mysteriously got results for the examination, which was written in April.
Kaieteur News was told yesterday that Clevorn Simon of the Micobie Primary School, Region Eight, died last November of meningitis.
However, when the results of the National Grade Six Assessment were released in July, the teachers at the school received his results. According to the Ministry of Education, the 11-year-old boy, whose remains would have already rot by the time the examination was written, scored 360 marks.
When this newspaper contacted the Minister of Education, Shaik Baksh, he stated that he would ‘look into’ the case.
He added that officials from the National Centre for Education Resource Development (NCERD) will brief him today on the issue.
This newspaper was told the Regional Education Officer of Region Eight was informed of the discrepancies and promised to examine the matter. When the results for the examination were released in July, Education Minister Shaik Baksh said that he was satisfied with the performance.
The Minister’s comments came during a press conference held at the Ministry’s Brickdam head office, when he unveiled the top performers of the assessment. He said that 18,613 candidates were entered to undertake the assessment, representing an increase of nearly 1000 candidates over last year.