With fewer pupils absent at NGSA, Manickchand upbeat about education sector’s recovery

More than 15,000 children were registered to write the 2024 National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) and based on available data, Education Minister Priya Manickchand said less than 450 pupils were absent.

A reconciliation of that number is needed since there may be instances where children wrote the assessment at different centres, according to the Education Minister.

The NGSA is Guyana’s secondary school entrance examination. It tests four core subjects: Mathematics, Science, English and Social Studies.

Because of this low absenteeism rate, Manickchand opined that the education sector is recovering well following the losses experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our statistics on turnout this year has shown us that we’ve done better as an education system and I’d like to keep that up and improve on it where we have no one absent,” Manickchand said at a recent press conference.

Further, she attributed these improvements to direct injections from her ministry including providing children with the textbooks they need, cash grants and breakfast for the children in Grade Six.

“… and the ability to use the various other resources might’ve helped children feel less hopeless than they were feeling before,” she said too.

The results of this year’s assessment will be available by the first week of July. The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has already started the process of marking the scripts.