By Aabigayle McIntosh

One thousand three hundred and thirty students from across public and private institutions in the country along with one studying in a home school setting will be sitting the Grade Six National Assessment on Wednesday and Thursday.

They will be tested in the four core subject areas; this year’s figure is a decline from the 1,396 pupils registered in 2023.

Speaking ahead of the assessment Education Officer for Measurement and Evaluation Ineta Francis said her team is prepared to administer the two-day process.

According to Francis, the process actually begins in January and will culminate in early July when the results are expected to be made available.

“It’s a very long process, there are a lot of things that will have to be put in place in order to have this two-day assessment come off well in the way it ought to,” Francis explained

She said the students would have been in preparation mode noting that from the time they entered Grade 6, they would have been working on their School-Based Assessments (SBA’s) which were handed in to the various Education Officers responsible for the respective subjects.

Wednesday and Thursday, she said, will be the written aspects of the exams. The children will begin with Language Arts Papers 1 and 2 on Wednesday followed by Science.

On Thursday papers 1 and 2 will be administered for Mathematics and then papers 1 and 2 for Social Studies.

“After Thursday we will sort our packages to get ready for the marking process which will begin on the following Monday. For us to get ready for that process we have to prepare scripts for standardizing so the Education Officers for the different subjects will come to the unit to pull their scripts,”

“We also make copies of those scripts so we can standardize the markers for this process. The marking this year is about 7 days and following the marking we have the inputting of data into our electronic mark books then we proceed from there with the analysis of the data,” Francis said.

As it relates to the results, she stated they are working towards publishing this information around the first Friday in July to schools, parents, and the public at large.

Francis encouraged the students not to get anxious and nervous as the work given was generated from topics they would have passed throughout the duration of their studies.

The Grade Six National Assessment is Antigua and Barbuda’s primary school exit exam.

The assessment is coming at a time when there are concerns about new COVID-19 infections. Director of Education Clare Browne issued an advisory outlining concerns and reminding parents and others to exercise caution in this regard.