On Friday, Dominica’s Minister of Education Octavia Alfred publicly released the official results of the 2026 Grade Six National Assessment (G6NA), and announced that 124 participating students have been awarded academic scholarships to continue their education.
Following the established award framework used in past assessment cycles, this year’s scholarships are granted to students who scored between 18 and 20 points on the assessment, while students who earned 16 to 17 points qualify for need-based bursaries. Of the 124 scholarship recipients, gender breakdown data shows 67 are girls and 57 are boys. For the 122 students who earned bursaries, 71 are girls and 51 are boys.
Alfred emphasized a major shift in this year’s G6NA design, which moved away from traditional competitive ranking of individual students and schools toward a focus on measuring individual academic growth. As part of this new approach, the education department did not release rankings for top-performing students or schools this cycle. Alfred explained that this shift was intentional, noting that ranking schools creates unfair comparisons because institutions across the island do not operate with equal access to resources and support, meaning they do not start on a level playing field. “This is not a competition, this is about ensuring that Dominican children all reach their full potential,” she said.
Across Dominica’s 57 public and private primary schools, 46 had at least one student who earned either a scholarship or a bursary in this year’s assessment. Every participating student will receive an individualized report sheet detailing their performance, which parents or guardians can collect directly from their child’s enrolled school in the coming days.
One of the most notable outcomes highlighted by Alfred is the closing of the historical performance gap between boys and girls. For years, national education statistics have shown that girls consistently outperformed boys on national primary-level assessments, but 2026 results show boys performed on par with girls this cycle. “We are very glad this year that our boys performed just as well as our girls. I want to say Dominica is coming out of the statistics that showed that girls outperformed boys. Well done, well done. And let us continue to work so that we do not return from whence we came,” Alfred shared, expressing clear satisfaction with this shift in outcomes.