Why Education Ministry will test all Primary 4 pupils in 2021 - Minister

The Ministry of Education is to introduce a new National Standardised Test to evaluate learning outcomes at the primary school level.

The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum said the National Standardised Test will be administered for the first time this year to all Primary Four students across the country.

Addressing a press briefing today in Accra, Dr Adutwum the test will assess whether students can read or not.

He said the test will also generate reports which will detail the challenges facing the education system across the country in the areas of literacy and mathematics.

The students will also be tested in Primary Five and Primary Six.

"...The World Bank talks about learning poverty and they talk about the fact that by year 10, 53% of students in various countries cannot read for understanding and Ghana is not an exception," Dr Adutwum said.

"Our Human Capital Index in 0.44, so that is why the President (Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo) says transform the space, so transforming of the space means that all fourth graders (Primary Four students) this year are going to be tested across the length and breadth of this country, every one of them.

"So that we will see the challenges that are confronting us as a nation and then we will give them one year during the fifth grade or primary five to do intervention. We will test them again in primary six, the following year, we are even going to begin from primary two...".

He said reports generated from the test in mathematics and literacy will be given to every single parent in the country to monitor the progress of their wards. It will also be available on a web-based dashboard for the general public to access.