The results of the Grade Level Assessment Tests (GLAT) reveal once again that grade three and grade six students generally had significant challenges in numeracy and literacy, according to Minister of Education Jerome Fitzgerald.

“It has been reported that once again in the area of numeracy there are many areas of concern including mathematical terminology and symbols, difficulties with high order topics such as probability and interpreting questions that involve words,” said Fitzgerald in an address at the Administrators Conclave on Monday

“In the area of literacy, for the GLAT exam it has been noted that students are still struggling year after year with the exam itself because of reading deficiencies and problems with vocabulary, spelling and grammar.”

The evaluations are based on the 2013-2014 school year.

Fitzgerald explained that although students were reported to have demonstrated competency in sequencing, differentiating facts and opinions, and mastered low-level simple recall questions, they presented problems in higher level thinking skills. The evaluations suggested that the high level of weakness in numeracy is based on the poor reading skills of students and not poor mathematical ability. It also indicates that students are much more challenged at the grade six level.

“Our role as educators is to ensure that every child succeeds, that no child gets left behind,” Fitzgerald said.

“There should be no excuses for third graders not being able to read and fourth graders not being able to complete basic time table.”

According to the report by the Research and Planning Section of the Ministry of Education, GLAT outcomes indicate a direct correlation to BJC and BGCSE results.

“This should not be a surprise to anyone,” Fitzgerald said.

“As we know there are many factors which contribute to poor academic performance and the cause and solution are indeed complex.”

The Ministry of Education revealed last week that students continued to average D’s and E’s, respectively in English language and Mathematics in the Bahamas General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) exams, despite improvement this year in under half of the 27 exam categories compared to 2014.

“Over the past three years we at the ministry have put in place a structure which we believe will minimize the opportunity for children to continue falling through the cracks,” Fitzgerald said.

He said the government will spend $1.5 million over the next two years on a new management computer system. This system called “The Student Achievement Unit” will use data to improve student performance and will assist in keeping track of every student from pre-school to grade 12.