Students to Sit Grade 4 Literacy Test June 16

Assistant Chief Education Officer, Student Assessment Unit, in the Ministry of Education, Sharon Neil, has announced that some 46,000 students have been registered for the Grade 4 Literacy Test on June 16.
“The Ministry of Education has registered approximately 46,000 students for the examination. The Ministry employed electronic registration of these students. Most schools have responded. At this point, approximately 97 per cent of the schools have submitted the registration forms for students in grade four,” she noted at a JIS ‘Think Tank’, in Kingston, on May 20.
Mrs. Neil is appealing to schools which have not yet submitted their registration forms, to do so immediately.
“Registration has in fact ended, but we want to encourage all schools with outstanding registrations to submit these urgently to the Student Assessment Unit of the Ministry of Education. We want to accommodate all students in grade four,” she said.
“It is an important indicator at this point in the child’s life and so we want to provide the opportunity for all children to do the test, but we can only make the provisions for them if they are registered. As you would understand, there are implications for hiring presiding examiners and printing and packaging sufficient numbers of test papers,” Mrs. Neil added.
The Grade 4 Literacy Test is one of the assessment instruments used by the Ministry of Education to assist primary school teachers to improve instruction and learning.
Mrs. Neil explained that the structure of the test remains the same as in previous years, adding that the test is comprised of three sections. “These include Word Recognition, in which students will be given 40 items to respond to. Section two is a Reading Comprehension, and in section three the students will be responding to two writing tasks. On the basis of students’ performance on those test items, they will be classified as literate or as not yet literate,” she said.
The Assistant Chief Education Officer pointed out that for a child to be considered literate at the Grade 4 level, he or she must master all three sections of the Literacy Test.
According to Mrs. Neil, only some schools will be closed for the sitting of the Grade 4 Literacy and Numeracy Test.
“Some schools will not be closed for the administration of the examination. Principals and territorial educational officers will assess the situation with each school and will determine the extent to which some of these schools may need to be closed in order to provide the best environment for administering the test,” she said.
The test will be done by students who are enrolled in a grade four class in a Government or private school.
“All arrangements are currently in place for the administration of the test. The Ministry is moving to external administration, which means that teachers will not be allowed to administer the test as in previous years. The examination is going to be held under strict examination conditions. Following the administration, the Ministry will undertake the marking of the test papers and will be providing the results to parents and to the schools,” Mrs. Neil explained.