Grade Four Literacy and Numeracy Tests Pushed Back to June 30 and July 1

This year’s sitting of the Grade Four Literacy and Numeracy Tests has been pushed back to June 30 and July 1 to make up for the time lost in September and October, due to the impact of the Chikungunga virus (CHIKV). 

The sitting of the tests was initially scheduled for June 4 and 5.

Minister of Education, Hon. Rev. Ronald Thwaites, said hundreds of students and teachers across the island, were severely affected by CHIKV last term, and were unable to attend school.

He was addressing a meeting with senior journalists at the Alhambra Inn Hotel in St. Andrew.

The Grade Four Literacy and Numeracy Tests are administered to children to determine their literacy and numeracy levels at grade four in keeping with international requirements and standards.

The Minister informed that 77.4 per cent of the age cohort achieved the acceptable standard of mastery in literacy in 2014. “I want to make it clear that these standards are not set just by the Ministry of Education….they are internationally benchmarked and they are the foundations, which will allow for reasonably satisfactory progress through the higher levels of the education system,” he said.

Rev. Thwaites informed that last year’s mastery level represented a 30 per cent increase for the 10-year period from 2004 to 2014. “In 2004, it was 57 per cent of our children, who attained mastery…in 2014, it is 77.4 per cent. That is progress. Although the average increase has been three per cent per year, some schools have recorded improvement at faster rates,” he pointed out.

The Education Minister noted that the country is now 7.6 per cent away from achieving the target of 85 per cent of students in the grade four age cohort achieving mastery of literacy skills by 2015. “The final measurement will be made at this year’s sitting of the Grade Four Literacy Test in summer,” he noted.

In terms of the numeracy test, Rev. Thwaites informed that 58 per cent of students, who sat the test last year attained mastery, registering a marginal decline of 1.4 per cent over the previous year. “But, there has been a 20 per cent improvement for the past five years, moving from a low of 38 per cent in 2010,” he said.

 By Alecia Smith-Edwards