GSAT is here!

After months of vigorous preparation for the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT), the challenge will start today.

Some 43,000 students will be sitting the two-day examination at 1,100 centres across the island.

But though some students were not presented with their timetables, the Ministry of Education said this should not prevent eligible children from sitting the examinations.

The ministry issued the directive a day after revealing on Tuesday that some 500 students have not received their timetables to sit the two-day examinations.

"The ministry wants it to be clear that if a student is slated to do the GSAT, the unavailability of a timetable for such a student should not be a deterrent," the ministry said in a statement yesterday.

"Such a student should be allowed to sit the test, as once that student is verified examination materials will be made available," it added.

The ministry also stated that unregistered students who turn up for GSAT are to be allowed to sit the examination.

Records to be handed in

"Their records (including copies of their birth certificates) must be submitted no later than Monday, March 28, 2011, to the regional offices. If a child is at the requisite age and has mastered the Grade Four Literacy Test, then his/her papers will be marked and the child placed."

The ministry added: "If not, then the papers will not be scored and the child will be placed via the Alternative Secondary Transitional Education Programme (ASTEP)."

The ministry also indicated that all students who sat the Grade Four Literacy Test in 2008 would be allowed to sit the GSAT whether or not they had mastered in 2008 or any subsequent sitting of the examination, as the Competence-based Transition Policy did not come into effect until 2009.