2017 NGSA Maths record dramatic improvement

Jul 01, 2017 News

While in 2016 the Ministry of Education recorded a 14 percent pass rate in Mathematics, this year the result is an astounding 46 percent. This was reported by Minister of Education, Ms Nicolette Henry, who presented the National Grade Six Assessment [NGSA] results yesterday in the Ministry’s Brickdam Georgetown boardroom.

Minister Nicolette Henry and Chief Education Officer, Marcel Hutson with some of the top performers.

Both Minister Henry and Chief Education Officer, Mr. Marcel Hutson, have credited the admirable improvement to a deliberate intervention by Government.
Over the years the Ministry has been faced with a problem of considerable weakness in the subject area. But according Minister Henry, “The Ministry of Education noted the poor performance in this subject area and implemented the Emergency Mathematical Intervention Plan. This plan entailed a number of aspects such as training for teachers in content and methodology.” Over 1000 teachers were trained in this regard.
This strategic movement also entailed fortnightly
cluster meetings in all regions . These were with both public and private schools, according to Hutson. “These meetings in the past were held once per month but taking into consideration the urgency with which we wanted to move we decided to create a community of learners where teachers benefited from the experiences of each other,” Hutson said.
There were also recruitment of Mathematics coordinators and monitors, training of officers and School Administrators to supervise the teaching of Mathematics and the administering of a diagnostic assessment of pupils in the hinterland regions prior to training of teachers.
The intervening measures included enhancement of public relations, parental involvement in the education of children and acquisition of support materials for students.
This, moreover, allowed for Mathematics to be the most improved subject area characterised by an increase of over 30 percent in the number of candidates gaining 50 percent and more.
According to CEO Hutson, “This is proof that mathematics can be fun and can only get better.”
But there were also improvement in the other subject areas too.
The NGSA allows pupils to be assessed in the subject areas of Mathematics, English Language, Science and Social Studies.
English has also shown some notable improvement this year when compared to 2016. According to Minister Henry in 2016 the pass rate was 42 percent but this year it has mounted to 54 percent. “This is the first time in many years that we were able to get over 50 percent passes in a subject area and that is absolutely phenomenal,” Minister Henry boasted.
In the area of Science in 2016 there was a 28 per cent pass rate and again the 2017 performance has reflected an improved pass rate of 46 percent.
And then in the area of Social Studies, this year the pass rate, though slightly improved, is 48 percent, up from 46 percent in 2016.
According to Minister Henry, she has had an interest in looking at the trend of performances over the years since “when we looked at the performances in 2015, 2016 and 2017 it gives you a good idea of where you are going and where you need to make the adjustments.”
Meanwhile, it is the view of the CEO that “the overall the performance of the students has greatly improved and in my estimation, I believe that this was as a direct result of the President’s [David Granger] and by extension, his Cabinet’s Emergency Mathematics Intervention done nationwide,” the CEO indicated.
Hutson is convinced that “there is a turning around in the system for the better. I sense a fresh breathe of air.”
According to the CEO, the Ministry of Education has taken a series of steps that are responsible for the results. He stressed that the turning around in Mathematics for instance was a process and therefore “it just didn’t happened.”

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