| With noticeable changes such as candidates having to write their names on question papers,Nike Air Force 1 Donna, the 2016 National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) is slated to commence today at primary schools across the country. This publication understands that Minister of Education, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, will be visiting the Helena Primary at Mahaica, his home village, to address candidates before the start of the assessments.According to information emanating from the Ministry yesterday all measures are in place to cater to a smooth delivery of the examinations at all sites.Approximately 14,500 candidates are expected to participate in the NGSA this year which will cover the subject areas of Mathematics, English, Science and Social Studies.This morning candidates are slated to write English Language Papers Two and One, while in the afternoon they will be expected to participate in the Science Papers Two and One.Tomorrow morning candidates will sit Mathematics Papers One and Two and in the afternoon they will write Social Studies Papers One and Two.The Ministry in a statement issued yesterday urged candidates to “remember to keep a positive attitude throughout the assessment and try to stay relaxed. If you start to feel nervous take a few deep breaths. Pace yourself, don’t rush. Read the whole question and pay attention to all the details looking for key words in every question to help you to understand and answer what is being asked of you”.Candidates are also reminded to be on time, walk with their timetables, read the instructions carefully and write their candidate’s number on all answer sheets.The Ministry had earlier said that changes to the NGSA are related to the question paper and answer sheets, and not the structure or format of the questions on the question paper.To clarify this development the Ministry had explained that while each of the four subjects written in the NGSA will continue to have two papers (Paper 1 and Paper 2) as it relates to candidate information,Basket Jordan Junior Pas Cher, the two papers require different sets of information. For paper one, the answer sheets will have the candidate information – candidate name and identification number – already printed or ‘pre-slugged’.The candidates will however be required to write/sign their names as a mechanism to ensure that the candidate for whom the paper was prepared is actually the one who answers the questions. But according to the Ministry, this will have no implications for marking, because these answer sheets will all be marked electronically.However, as it relates to paper two, the cover page of the answer sheet is bifurcated and perforated. The Test Code, Subject,Air Max Wholesale Ireland, and Candidate Number are required on both sides. The Test Code and Subject will already be printed while candidates will be required to write in their Candidate Number. This information is provided on the timetables given to every candidate.In addition to this, on the right half of the paper only, candidates are also required to write in the name of their school, their full name, date of birth and gender. The right side of the sheets are all detached prior to the commencement of the marking of paper two and retained for administrative purposes only.The information that would be evident during the marking process would be the Test Code, Subject, and Candidate Number only. ”These are administrative mechanisms and will have no bearing on the marking process whatsoever,” the Ministry has insisted.This development,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, however, has not found favour with former Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, who said that the fact that students will have to write their names on question papers would affect negatively the integrity of the assessment. Minister Roopnaraine insisted that this would not be the case. He reassured that the markers of the examination will not be in possession of the names of the candidates.“That is the major area of concern and a major area of abuse… The candidates’ names will not be available to the markers, that is her (Manickchand’s) main concern. It doesn’t matter where the candidates put their names; we have to ensure that names and numbers match. We don’t just want numbers and don’t have names to go with the numbers, and that is the only reason we want names,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys,” Minister Roopnaraine explained.He added that the changes to the NGSA come at a time when the Ministry is looking to take the examination aspect out of the Grade Two and the Grade Four Assessments. The intent, according to Minister Roopnaraine, is to instead use the two examinations as diagnostic assessments that can essentially “point us in the direction that we believe that some corrective action be taken or so, but not have it count, as it previously was, towards Grade Six (NGSA).”Minister Roopnaraine had last year disclosed plans to consult with the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) to help improve the National Grade Two Assessment (NGTA), the National Grade Four Assessment (NGFA) and by extension the NGSA.The state of affairs that has obtained for a number of years is that the ascension to secondary schools require that five per cent of each candidate’s NGTA score in Mathematics and English and 10 per cent of the NGFA score in the same subjects be added to 85 per cent of each candidate’s NGSA score in the same subject areas.The combined scores in Mathematics and English are added to the scores gained in Science and Social Studies , thereby determining the secondary school a candidate is allowed to attend. It is not clear whether the Ministry has already consulted with CXC,NFL Cheap Jerseys, but Minister Roopnaraine confidently informed that plans to revise the process were imminent. |
