Students to write National Test tomorrow

The test will be given to students in Standards One and Three in Language Arts and Mathematics and will be analysed to compare the performance of students in the various education districts.

It does not indicate a pass or fail situation.

Meanwhile, the ministry has said that results of this year’s Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) would be released in the first week of July. No date was given for the exact release. However, schools will close on July 8 for the July/August vacation and reopen on September 5.

The ministry promised to release data on the number of students writing the National Test this week, "once it is available."

The aim of the assessment is to "gather information for decision-making at the school, district and national levels, identify areas of the system that require further investigation, identify national norms, compare students’ performance by school and educational districts and track students’ progress in schools."

The test was originally constructed and administered to students in Standards one - four.

Last year the test was held on June 22 and the results showed that overall, district performance was "average in nature."

The report on last year’s test showed that based on a fixed national mean of 50, all eight educational districts fell between eight points below (42) and eight points above (58) the mean.

It said five districts were performing below the mean and female students were performing significantly better than male students in all districts.