KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — A national mock examination for the 2017 Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT), designed by the Education Ministry, will be administered in all primary schools on January 11 and 12.

State Minister in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information Floyd Green says the examination will cover mathematics, language arts, and communication task as well as practice papers for social studies and science.

“For the first time we will be conducting a national mock examination. What normally happens is that the primary schools administer their own form of mock examination around this time to judge the level of the students in terms of their preparation and readiness for GSAT,” he told JIS News in an interview.

“We have already put together the examination and we will be providing all the papers to schools across the country. We will also be taking care of the marking process and provide the schools with the details in terms of the students and the areas they may need to focus on to ensure that their readiness is brought up to an acceptable level for GSAT,” the state minister added.

Green said this move will assist schools to tackle the challenges related to administering the examination, particularly printing costs.

Meanwhile, the state minister said all is on track in preparation for the 2017 GSAT, slated for March 16 and 17.

Green told JIS News that final arrangements are being made, with emphasis on making provisions for students with special needs.

“In January we normally make a call to all the parents, whose children may have special needs for the examination, to provide us with that information and those children that are visually impaired and require special accommodation,” he said.

Green said a bulletin is to be issued next week to primary schools across the island that are reopening for the new academic year, to collect information to accommodate students with special needs, who are sitting the examination.