A record four hundred and forty students from nine public and eleven private primary schools are expected to sit this year's Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) in the Turks and Caicos Islands – sixty seven more than the number that wrote last year's exam, this according to the Education Department.

The date for the GSAT is between May 27 and 29.

More male candidates are sitting the GSAT Examination this year than female candidates, reversing last year's trend, which saw females dominating their male counterparts. Of the number of candidates sitting the GSAT this year, 225 are males while 215 are females. In 2007 378 students wrote the GSAT, of whom 165 were males and 213 were females, two less than this year's female total.

All four areas of examination saw improvements last year over 2006, which many claimed was disappointing year. There was a 75.93 percent pass in English Language last year, a marginal improvement over 2006, which was 75.65 percent pass. Mathematics saw an almost twenty point jump in 2007 over the previous year, as in 2007, the candidates registered a 60.62 percent overall pass, to 48.41 overall pass in 2006.

Science saw the biggest passes last year, as the rate was 88.62 percent, as against 55.07 in 2006. There was an 83.07 pass rate in General Paper last year, as against 68.12 percent in 2006.

According to the Education Department, the pass rate for students scoring 50 percent from public schools was 73.52 percent in 2007, up from 64 percent in the previous year, while that of private school students shot to 91 percent, as against 74 percent in 2006. The overall pass rate for students from all schools – private and public – scoring50 percent and above in 2007 GSAT was 78.31 percent.

According to the Education Department, the examinations will be written at four venues through-out the Turks and Caicos Islands .

The Grand Turk students will sit their GSAT Examinations at the Yellowman and Sons Auditorium on the Old Airport Road . Students in South Caicos will write their examinations at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church 's Sunday School Hall. Middle Caicos and North Caicos students will sit their exams at the Community Centre in Whitby , North Caicos , while Candidates in Providenciales will white their examination at Gustarvus Lightbnourne Sports Complex, Downtown Providenciales.

Cable and Wireless will provide scholarships to the top performer of Oseta Jolly Primary, which they have adopted, and the top two overall students. The Education Department is anticipating a spike in performance for individual subjects, also predicting an overall increase in the pass rate for 2007.