MINISTER of Education, Ms. Priya Manickchand yesterday released the preliminary results for this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Exams in a press conference held at the National Centre for Education Resource Development (NCERD). According to the minister, candidates from Guyana were offered 34 subjects at the examinations and there were excellent performances recorded in 14 subjects, with grade one to three passes exceeding 75%. She also said that excellent performances at grade one to four were recorded in twenty subjects where the pass rate exceeded 90%. While satisfactory performances were recorded in 16 subjects, the overall performances in four subjects were unsatisfactory, with less than 50% passes grade one to three in these subjects.
The minister noted that there was a small decline in the overall performance of students in Mathematics, from 30.35% percent passes in grades one to three in 2011 to 29.69% this year. She also said that there was a significant decline in English Language from 60% passes in grades one to three in 2011 to 37% this year.
She added that Additional Mathematics was written for the first time this year, and the performance was satisfactory with 58.33% of the candidates securing grade one to three passes.
The minister noted that there was an increase both in the number of candidates sitting the exam, as well as the number of subject entries. As opposed to the 12,731 students who wrote the exam last year, there were 13,878 students sitting the exam this year. Also, while there were 70,781 subject entries last year, the number has increased to 77, 108 this year.