1,000 fewer students sitting GSAT each year

BY KIMONE THOMPSON Features Editor - Sunday thompsonk@jamaicaobserver.com

Sunday, September 05, 2010

APPROXIMATELY 1,000 fewer students are sitting the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) each year, but the education ministry has not yet been able to determine why.

However, minister of education Andrew Holness, in a discussion at the Observer Press Club on Friday, reasoned that factors such as a declining national birth rate and the failure on the part of some parents to send their children to school could be responsible.

“What we’re noticing is that there’s a decline in the population (of those seeking entry to high school),” said Holness. “There are about a thousand less students sitting GSAT every year, so each year we have to revise the projection of space needs. So areas that we previously thought would be high-demand areas are turning out to be not-so-high demand areas.”

GSAT is part of the series of tests administered at the primary education level under the National Assessment Programme. It determines where in the secondary education system students are placed. A total of 48,200 students sat the exam this past March. In 2009, the candidates numbered 49,700 and in 2008 the number stood at 48,733. The 2007 figure was 51,000 while that for 2006 was 51,204.

“I know the birth rate is declining, but I’m not certain if (the decline) is because there are less of them registering or attending schools,” Holness said, even while stressing the point that parents who fail to send their children to school could face legal penalties.

The decline is one area which has informed the current drive by the ministry — through the National Education Trust — to audit present school facilities as well as future sites. The idea, according to the minister, is to be more efficient in the use of space.

“They are looking at the education lands that we have, all the schools we plan to build, trying to find the lands on which they will be built and doing an audit,” he said. “As soon as that is done, I will know exactly how many acres of land we have for schools, where they are located, what can be used, what can’t be used, what should be closed, what should be merged, what should be expanded, what we can dispose of, and what we can convert into other things.”

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1,000 fewer students sitting GSAT each year