GSAT fails to score properly

Devon Dick

THE DAILY Observer of Tuesday July 17, 2001 had a headline, which said that 'Kevin Mahabir, not awarded a scholarship'. It then stated that Kevin had almost perfect scores and could have been awarded a scholarship but for the fact that he was returning to Trinidad. The article is misleading.Ten-year-old Kevin could not have been awarded a scholarship based on how GSAT arrives at a student's average score.

Kevin scored maximum 100 for Mathematics, 100 for Science and 100 for Social Studies and 98 for Language Arts and 10 out of 12 for Communication Tasks. In other words, Kevin failed to get perfect scores by four points. Perfect scores would mean attaining 412 points from the five subject areas and he attained 408. This would be an average of 99 per cent.

However, that is not how the Deputy Chief Education Officer and his team at the Ministry of Education calculate the average score of the students. They would claim that Kevin's score in Communication Tasks of 10 out of 12 values 83 per cent. This would mean that every time a student drops one point in fact he or she is really dropping 8 points. So the only 13 scores that are possible and they are wide apart namely 0, 8, 17, 25, 33, 42, 50, 58, 67, 75, 83, 92 and 100. This is faulty scoring because if a subject is marked out of 100 then it is usually expected that the student will be able to have the possibility of having 101 different scores and not be restricted to only 13! So Kevin's scores are by GSAT's machinations are 100, 100, 100, 98 & 83. Instead, of dropping 4 points from a perfect score he has dropped 19 points. So the new average is 96.2 per cent instead of 99 per cent.

Nobody who got an open government scholarship got a 'GSAT average' of less that 97 per cent so Kevin could not get a scholarship. Even if Kevin had scored 100 in Mathematics, 100 in Science, 100 in Social Studies and 100 in Language Arts and 11 out of 12 for Communi-cation Tasks he still would not have received a scholarship this year based on the GSAT system. Every-body who got an open scholarship had to score 12 out of 12 in Communication Tasks. Some members of the public are missing this point.

In a letter to the Editor of The Gleaner of July 4, 2001 Michael Johnson charged that there was a bias against preparatory schools and for primary schools in the award of government scholarships. This is not so and why it appears so this year is because of the miscalculations on Communication Tasks. What is not clear is if the private sector bodies like BNS, VMBS and Blue Cross, who depend on accurate mathematical calculations, used this faulty calculation to determine the award of their scholarships. The reason why children with better scores were not allocated one of the open scholarships is due to miscalculations and has nothing to do with the type of school. The good thing is that all persons who got open scholarships scored at least 97 per cent and that by any score is excellent and deserving of a scholarship.

The more important issue is not the award of scholarships but rather a just, fair and accurate system to arrive at an average. In addition, there is the fundamental issue of how to calculate an average? If it were a test question on the mathematics paper to ascertain a student's average how would the markers score it? This is a global village and to teach children the wrong way to calculate averages would put them at a disadvantage internationally.

It is encouraging that the national mathematics average has improved from 42 per cent in 1999 to 52 per cent in 2001. That is a massive improvement. Delroy Alleyne, Deputy Chief Education Officer, is correct in praising the policies of the Ministry of Education and also dedication of the teachers for the improved performance in the GSAT results. Credit should also be given to the hardworking students and supportive parents for the improved performance. It is also encouraging that the Deputy Chief Education Officer is willing to re-examine the system at arriving at the student's average. The JTA and the Mathematics Association should publicly express an opinion on how averages should be calculated.

If the Ministry of Education does the calculations the correct way then the problem of incorrect weights being applied to subjects would have to be tackled. Based on the existing system the 'weight' on Communication Tasks is too great while based on the correct way it would be too light.

Whereas Mathematics, Social Studies and Language Arts are allocated 1 hour 15 minutes each, Communication Tasks is allocated 50 minutes. It takes less time and should therefore be marked out of 50 or 60. Kevin Mahabir deserved a scholarship based on his average of 99 per cent but he could only get it if the GSAT scoring system changes to better reflect each student's performance.

Devon Dick is pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church.

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