THE MINISTRY of Education and Youth will be packaging the placement results and scores of the 2006 Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) on compact discs (CDs) for dissemination to all schools by the end of next month.Prior to this, schools received hard copies of scores and placements for their students through the regional offices. However, this year they will receive both the placements and the test scores on CDs.
MORE COST-EFFECTIVE
Adelle Brown, Chief Education Officer in the ministry, said yesterday that the new procedure would not only expedite the process, but be more cost-effective.
She said it would also allow easier and more durable storage of information that could be used as points of reference over the years.
"This will also allow the schools to do a more efficient comparative analysis on their performance in the GSAT over the years," Ms. Brown explained.
In keeping with its policy to promote transparency in its operations, the ministry will also make all the results available to all schools.
In previous years, schools were privy only to the results of the students from their institutions.
Schools which do not have access to computers will still receive hard copies of the GSAT results.
The results of the GSAT conducted in March will be ready by the end of June.
AUTOMATIC PLACEMENT
Over 52,000 students sat the test, the majority of whom will benefit from automatic placement based on their test scores in relation to their choice.
Each student is allowed to identify, in order of preference, five secondary schools at which they would like to be placed.
However, it is their performance that largely deter-mines which of the five schools they will attend.
