INCREASED overall pass rates have been recorded for the 2015, Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) and the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate Examination (CSEC), while improvements in Mathematics and English Language have also been sighted this year.As seen over the past few years, there have been consistent increases in the number of pass rates from persons writing these exams; this year for CAPE, there has been an increase from 85.07% in 2014 to 87.54%, while for CSEC there has been an increase from 60.21% last year to 62.725 this year, as the overall 2015 Grades One to Four pass rate was 84.4%.
These rates compared with last year, indicate a marginal increase in Grades One to Three passes.

Speaking yesterday at the National Centre for Education Resource Development (NCERD), Minister of Education, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine disclosed that, “they are encouraged by the overall performances and the increased pass rates, as more focus will be placed on ensuring that this continues…we will certainly maintain elements that seem to be working.”
Adding that performances in key areas of English Language and Mathematics have improved over the last three years, and although by no means are they satisfied by the existing percentages, they are encouraged by the upward trend.
For CSEC, the Grades One to Three passes in English Language and Mathematics both improved over last year’s performance. The English Language pass rate is 49.36% up from 46.98% in 2014 and 45.69% in 2013, while the mathematics pass rate is 45.97%, up from 38.75% in 2014 and 28.92% in 2013.
Nevertheless, “we will not cease strategic interventions in these specific areas until these meet satisfactory output levels. Emphasis needs to [be] placed on the sciences; we have seen some improvements, however, some have slipped and we hope it is a one-off phenomenon, as efforts will begin to bear fruit,” said Minister Roopnaraine.
Performances on the technical and vocational subjects have also improved and emphasis will be placed on these areas of pursuit, since they have direct national developmental implications.
Meanwhile in his presentation, Chief Education Officer Olato Sam highlighted the fact that in 2015 there was a decrease in the number of candidates who wrote CSEC, but this was due to a more demographic reason.
However, the top 10 Schools that recorded passes over 60% and more pass rates for 2015 included: The Bishops’ High 97.41%; Queen’s College 94.57%; St. Stanislaus College 93.16%; St. Joseph High School 92.78%; St. Rose’s High School 89.31%; President’s College 87.99%; Berbice High School 86.93%; West Demerara Secondary 86.52%; Central High School 85.75% and New Amsterdam Multilateral 82.91%.
Moving away from that, he disclosed that the overall performances in Chemistry, Physics, Visual Arts and Human and Social Biology were unsatisfactory, while performances in English Literature remained relatively constant, as in 2014 the Grades One to Three pass rates were 61.45% and 61.76% in 2015.
In business education subjects, the performances in Economics, Office Administration and Principles of Business were excellent. While satisfactory performance was recorded in Principles of Accounts with a Grade One to Three pass rate of 65.43%.
Apart from that, he highlighted that excellent performances were recorded in both information technology (general) and electronic document preparation and Management, in which the pass rates were 89.27% and 91.04% respectively.
Satisfactory performances were also recorded in Caribbean History and Geography. The pass rate for Caribbean History improved from 56.39% in 2014 to 59.75% in 2015, while the Geography Grades One to Three pass rate for 2015 is 53.59%.
In Home Economics, an increase was recorded in Clothing and Textiles; the 2014 pass rate was 63.41% as against 75% in 2015. However, there was a decline in the pass rates for Food and Nutrition and Home Economics Management.
The industrial modern language subjects, French and Spanish recorded satisfactory performances. The Grades One to Three pass rate for French is 54.96% in 2015. Performance in Spanish moved from 62.61% in 2014 to 60.51% in 2015.
Moving forward, he highlighted that in the industrial technology subjects, Building Technology, (woods) and Electrical and Electronic Technology recorded improved performances in Grades One to Three Passes. Building Technology (woods) improved from 72.15% in 2014 to 79.67% in 2015 while excellent performances were recorded in Theatre Arts and Physical Education and Sports with Grades One to Three passes over 75%.
CAPE
The number of students for CAPE continues to increase, there was a 100% increase recorded in 24 units, while in 26 units the pass rate of candidates was 75% or higher with grade one to five passes.
In five units candidates obtained a pass rate of 50% or higher (but below 75%) with Grade One to Five passes).While Caribbean studies and Communication Studies continue to record an over 95% pass rate while Pure Mathematics Unit 1 declined from 57.73% in 2014 to 54.98% in 2015.