Education ministry unclear as to release date for NGSA results

A date has not been set for the release of the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) results according to the Ministry of Education (MoE).

Following the rushed sitting of the exam on July 1 and July 2, the MoE is still uncertain of when the results from the exam will be available to students and parents, as well as when schools will be reopened for the new school year to commence.

The Ministry had previously announced that the reopening of schools was being guided by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) as the number of COVID-19 cases will be considered before any form of congregating is allowed.

In many regions of the country, lockdowns have been enforced to ensure that persons are not engaged in mass gatherings. Accordingly, schools had been shut since March 17, but with the permission of the MoPH, schools and other institutional facilities were opened for the sitting of the NGSA as well as the Caribbean Examinations Council exams which started oral examinations last week. The sitting of the exams will begin today. 

These exams are being written after the curriculum for subjects were completed and some students were able to do revision via virtual classes.

The sitting of the NGSA exam is usually done in April and the marking of papers and release of results is completed around June to July, some two months after the sitting of the exam. This year the exam was postponed from its original dates – April 8 and April 9 – to July 1 and July 2 as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.