Over 400 students from Primary schools throughout the islands anxiously sat off this morning to begin day one of their GSAT examinations.
The Grade Six Achievement Test is a pre-requisite to determining whether those students have the ability to pass those exams and enter the secondary level of their education at one of the high schools in the islands.
Ahead of the exams the People’s Democratic Movement had taken exception to what it refers to as major changes to this year’s G-SAT examination
A week ago today, RTC News shared a story where the leadership of the PDM registered their concern with regards to what is being proposed for the 2014 GSAT Examinations.
National Chairman of PDM, Hon. Clarence Selver, quoted what he said was a reliable source as saying the changes were being done without consultation with all the stakeholders, including the teachers and parents.
“Up until now, the GSAT Examinations were written over a three day period and all interested parties (teachers, PTA and students) prepared themselves in keeping with this time frame. What is now being instituted is for the exams to be written over TWO days. The same volume of works will still be undertaken but it is the MATHS examinations that was split in two papers will now be sat as one paper for 2 ½ (two and one half hours). This is a mammoth task for the 11 + year olds. They have not been prepared for an exam this long. We don’t think CXC has papers this long. This is far too long an examination and there are scientific reasons why it should not be done in this manner as we could see frustration, confusions, a feeling of heightened anxiety and diminishing returns as the exam progresses beyond the 1 ½ hour mark,” Hon. Selver said in that release.
He contended there were no mock trials to inform students on time management techniques for papers with 2 ½ hours duration.
“We therefore sincerely urge the Ministry of Education to delay the change for another time when the Ministry would have consulted the stakeholder and the teachers be given an opportunity to prepare students to be examined for 2 ½ hours if it is still the decision to move in this direction. We further urge the government not to make this change simply for financial concerns in an attempt to save money and reduce the cost attached to the examinations,” Selver added.
RTC News had sought clarification from the Ministry of Education on the concern expressed by the PDM and in a press release to Tuesday, the Ministry and Department of Education noted its policy review of the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) guidelines (specifications), which it says has been incorporated, following changes to reduce the number of papers for Science, English and Mathematics.
According to the release, Mathematics has been changed from two papers to one paper and will be structured in three sections. Section A has forty (40) multiple choice items, Section B is short answer items and Section C contains structured type questions.
– –Science will have a single paper as opposed to two papers
– –Minor changes to the English papers
– – And a reduction in the number of days for the administration of the test, from three days to two days.
The Ministry of Education says the review of the GSAT specification, is informed by the annual GSAT statistical data, comments from invigilators, markers, Principals and Grade 6 teachers and observations from parents. During the last five-year period the Department says it was asked by the majority of primary schools and parents to consider incorporating the changes mentioned.
The Department of Education says it recognizes the validity in these recommendations, based on the statistical data and observations made over a five-year period. Based on this, some of the changes were incorporate during the last specification review.
It noted in schools where mock tests were administered, the changes were incorporated into the design of the papers and the children were tested, using the specified time periods.
The Department of Education says it will monitor the time that the majority of students actually spend on this paper and is prepared to make adjustments, where necessary for future papers. “The cycle of reviews to the specifications help to maintain high standards, taking into account the learning objectives of the primary curriculum and how children treat with the test from year to year,” the department’s release noted.
It also said that the reduction in the number of papers, and the subsequent reduction in the number of days for the administration of the test are not linked in any way to budgetary constraints as alluded to in the PDM’s release.
“Expenditure on the administration of the GSAT remains within the annual estimates. The amount allocated for this year has not been reduced when compared with the amount allocated during the same period last year,” the Education department noted.
