‘Quiz Me’, a new online platform that will allow pupils to practise examination-type questions and receive answers immediately, was launched by the Ministry of Education on Friday at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD).
At the launch, Education Minister, Priya Manickchand, related that this year’s pupils, who will be sitting the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA), are doing so while Guyana’s education delivery is challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This Grade Six (examination) is very difficult to not sit the exam and it is very difficult because we consulted with parents and teachers repeatedly and they said that the fairest thing to do would be to sit the (examinations),” the minister said.
In response to this, however, she noted that a string of interventions was made to allow pupils to cope. One intervention was issuing worksheets and textbooks to all pupils preparing for the assessment, slated to be written on August 4 and 5.
One concern that was raised following the issuing of the worksheets was that answer keys did not accompany those sheets. As such, parents found it difficult to help their children answer the questions. This, the minister explained, led to the creation of the Quiz Me platform.
This platform can be found at: education.gov.gy/quizme and it currently has just under 50 quizzes, primarily for Grade Six pupils. The quizzes are organised in four subject areas: Mathematics, English, Social Studies and Science.
Importantly, it was highlighted that the quiz platform, like the rest of the Education Ministry’s website, is zero-rated by the major internet providers in Guyana. This means that Guyanese can access the website without using data from their internet plan or without even having an active data plan.
Meanwhile, Head of Information Systems at the Ministry of Education, Phil Mingo, related that the platform was designed to be responsive to various types of devices used by students, teachers and parents.
“This means that it does not matter whether the end-user has a mobile phone, tablet, laptop or desktop – old or new, with the access to the internet, the Quiz Me platform can still be used and responds appropriately to the type of devices used. This is also important for users who may have some level of visual impairment,” Mr Mingo noted.
He also indicated that while the platform only offers multiple-choice questions now, other formats of questioning such as matching and true and false type questions will be added.
