The National Standardised Test for Primary Four pupils in public basic schools will be held on Friday, December 17, 2021.

The national test will enable the Ministry of Education generate data on the performance of pupils in English Language and Mathematics.

Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, Minister of Education, said at a press briefing in Accra ahead of the activity.

He said the test was to improve on teaching and learning in public basic schools and not to grade the pupils.

The Minister said it would enable them to generate data on how learners were meeting the expectations of the curriculum.

“It will help us identify what the learning gaps are that need to be addressed and analyse variations in learner achievement by region, gender, location and school type,” he added.

He said the test would be organised for only public schools in the country, adding that, they could consider enrolling private schools in future.

“For now, we are focusing on public schools due to the numbers, but we have plans for those in private schools in future,” he said.

The Minister said the Ministry was working with the West Africa Examination Council and the Ghana Education Service to undertake the exercise.

Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, Director General, Ghana Education Service, said a total of 470,768 pupils were expected to participate in the test from 15, 391 schools nationwide.

He said it would be a one-day examination on English and Mathematics, and would be multiple choice questions, thirty-five questions each.

The Director-General indicated that there would be 2, 850 examination centres with 200 pupils per centre.

Prof Opoku-Amankwa said they would be running tests for Primary Two, Six and Junior High School Two students in next year.

He said the Service would be organising series of training programmes for teachers towards the activity.