– Inquiry into education system could pave way forward

By Ravin Singh

GUYANA’s overall performance in English A at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination has shown significant improvement but there continues to be a decline in Mathematics, education officials revealed Wednesday.The results of this year’s performance at CSEC, offered by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), were announced by the Ministry of Education on Wednesday at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) office at Kingston, Georgetown.

The percentage of students who passed English A, with Grade One, Two or Three, moved from 49.36 percent last year to 59.3 percent this year. However, the statistics revealed that performance in Mathematics declined this year, with a pass rate of 38.37 percent, compared to 45.07 percent last year.

This year, the number of students gaining Grades One to Three in the general and technical proficiencies increased by 0.67 percent over last year’s total score of 62.72 percent.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Delma Nedd, said the results were not satisfactory. She said failure to achieve a 50 percent pass rate in Mathematics was still worrying.

Nedd said the Ministry hopes to address the issue in a comprehensive way once the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the education system is completed and the report, with recommendations, is handed over, likely by December.

Excellent performances
But despite the worry over Mathematics, the Ministry announced that of the 35 subjects written at this year’s examinations, the overall results indicated excellent performances in 15 subjects where the Grades One to Three passes exceeded 75 per cent.

These subjects were: Agriculture Science (DA), Agricultural Science (SA), Biology, Food & Nutrition, French, Home Economics Management, Information Technology, Principles of Business, Religious Education, Theatre Arts, Electronic Document Preparation and Management, Physical Education & Sport, Music, Building Technology (Const.) and Building Technology (Woods).

Significant improvement was also noted in Biology and Physics. Grades One to Three passes in Biology moved from 59.3 percent last year to 76.38 percent this year, while Physics moved from 44.81 percent last year to 55.83 percent this year. Human & Social Biology showed improvement in Grade One to Three passes from 49.35 percent last year to 58.42 percent this year.
In the Business Education subjects, the performance in most of these subjects was satisfactory. Principles of Business recorded an excellent performance with a pass rate of 84.91 percent. Principles of Accounts moved from 65.43% last year to 70.81 percent this year.

Excellent performances were recorded in both Information Technology (General) and Electronic Document Preparation and Management, where the pass rates were 84.94% and 91.07% respectively.

In the Modern Languages subjects, French recorded an excellent performance with a pass rate of 79.86 percent, compared to 54.96 percent last year. Spanish improved from 60.51 percent last year to 66.33 percent this year.

All of the students who wrote Music gained passes in Grade One, Two or Three. Theatre Arts, and Physical Education and Sports both recorded over 95 per cent passes in Grades One to Three.
Performance in Religious Education improved, scoring 88.1 percent, compared to 81.45 percent last year.

Satisfactory performances

Meanwhile, “satisfactory performances” were recorded in 18 subjects where the Grades One to Three passes exceeded 50 per cent while Grades One to Four passes were in excess of seventy five percent.

These included: Caribbean History, Clothing & Textiles, Economics, English A, English B, Geography, Integrated Science, Office Administration, Physics, Principles of Accounts, Social Studies, Spanish, Technical Drawing, Visual Arts, Human & Social Biology, Additional Mathematics, Electrical & Electronic Technology and Mechanical Engineering Technology.

Satisfactory performance was also recorded in Visual Arts with a pass rate of 55.55 per cent – having improved from 34.25 per cent in 2015 and 41.12 per cent in 2014.

The overall performance in Chemistry, the Ministry said, was unsatisfactory with a pass rate of 41.13 per cent.

Of the 12,809 candidates that wrote the examinations earlier this year, 8269 were public candidates, while the remaining 4540 were attached to private schools. Subject entries between the 4677 male candidates and 8132 female candidates amounted to 73,303.