Guyana outperforms Caribbean at CAPE
Dr. Nicole Manning, Director of Operations at the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) (Ministry of Education photo)
Dr. Nicole Manning, Director of Operations at the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) (Ministry of Education photo)

WHEN it comes to academics, Guyana continues to be a topper within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and even amid a global pandemic, this year is no different.

Director of Operations at the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), Dr. Nicole Manning, said Guyana’s performance at this year’s Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) has been “marginally higher” when compared to the rest of the region.

Education Minister, Priya Manickchand (Elvin Croker photo)

Dr. Manning was at the time providing a breakdown of the results of a number of regional examinations, including the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC).

“Notably, we had 16 units in which 100 per cent of candidates from Guyana received acceptable grades one to three,” Dr. Manning explained during the announcements of the results which was streamed live across the region, from the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Liliendaal, Georgetown.
It was explained that Guyana recorded an 88 per cent pass rate, as compared to the regional average of 87 per cent.

In her presentation, Dr. Manning gave insights into the performances per subject. She said that for Caribbean Studies, the regional pass rate stood at 95 per cent, with pupils achieving acceptable grades from one to five. This indicates a decrease when compared to 98 per cent passes in 2020 and 97 per cent passes in 2019 and 2018.

Guyana’s performance in Caribbean studies stoop below average at 92 per cent passes.
In Communications Studies, the rest of the Caribbean recorded a 93 per cent pass rate, while Guyana’s was pegged at 97 per cent.

In Sociology Unit One, the rest of the region secured 90 per cent passes, while Guyana achieved 96 per cent. Similarly, Sociology Unit Two saw Guyana’s pass rate reaching 96 per cent, as against the regional average of 94 per cent.

Dr. Manning said that performances in Law Unit One remained relatively consistent, with the regional pass rate being recorded at 89 per cent. This can be compared to Guyana’s notable 95 per cent passes.

Performances in Law Unit Two were also quite similar with the region recording an 87 per cent pass rate, while Guyana’s stood at 96 per cent.
The CXC official, in her presentation, said that the regional performance average for Law Unit Two saw a decline in 2019-2021, but was consistent with results from 2018.

According to Dr. Manning, Grade One passes in Law Unit Two even increased by a notable 10 per cent.
Overall performances in Integrated Mathematics saw a slight reduction, with Guyana achieving an 80 per cent pass rate as compared to the regional average of 64 per cent.

Meanwhile, Pure Mathematics Unit One recorded a pass rate of 73 per cent, as compared to Guyana’s 59 per cent. Despite Guyana’s lower performance, Dr. Manning said that this year, the subject has recorded its highest number of Grade One passes, which accounted for 32 per cent of all those who passed.

This trend did not continue with Pure Mathematics Unit Two, as the number of Grade Ones declined to 26 per cent. However, overall, the subject recorded an 87 per cent pass rate, with Guyana falling back at lower 75 per cent.

As for Chemistry Unit One, the results reflect a 92 per cent regional pass rate as compared to Guyana’s 84 per cent. Performances in Chemistry Unit Two was pegged at 95 per cent, with Guyana being on par with the rest of the Caribbean.

Results from the Biology Unit One examinations for 2021 remained consistent with that of previous years, recording a 90 per cent pass rate regionally, and in Guyana. In Biology Unit Two, Guyana surpassed the regional 94 per cent pass rate, recording a 97 per cent passes.

LOWEST COHORT
Dr. Manning in her report acknowledged that the examinations were taken at a time when the world, particularly the region, was faced with many hindrances including natural disasters and the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

“This would have been our lowest cohort for the last four years,” Dr. Manning said, as she highlighted the 27,750 entries made to sit the CAPE subjects.

Dr. Manning said that as part of its psychosocial component, CXC was also accommodating to the hardships being faced by students, leading up to the various examinations.

As CAPE 2021 approached, Dr. Manning said that there was a 400 per cent increase in hardships being recorded, and that these were all dealt with at the level of the examinations’ council. “Some of it directly affected the candidates and some of it affected their parents,” Dr. Manning said.

She indicated that during the examinations period, CXC received reports from candidates who had lost parents and guardians to the novel coronavirus. “We took this into consideration and none of these candidates would have been disadvantaged. We made sure that we took care of that,” Dr. Manning assured.

She said that candidates across the region were all afforded the choice of deferring their examination dates to 2022, if they felt ill-prepared.
“They [pupils sitting the examinations] could have done it [the examinations] over two periods – January 2022 as well at June 2022,” Dr. Manning said.

Meanwhile, Education Minister, Priya Manickchand, emphasised how important it is for regional officials to be candid about “the harsh realities the pandemic has forced us to confront”.

STARK SOCIOECONOMIC REALITIES
She said that one of the most significant realities that must be addressed relates to the “stark socioeconomic realities within our societies”.
“The digital divide and other similar equity issues were brought into sharp focus as the deep fissures between those possessing the wherewithal to adapt and those ill-equipped to undertake such adjustments became very pronounced,” Minister Manickchand recognised.

She said that it is therefore vital that “as we examine strategies and approaches for the advancement for education within the region, equal attention is given to addressing the structural and systemic barriers that inhibit those from effectively participating and benefitting”.

Another area that requires attention, according to the Education Minister, is the extent to which the region has modernised its education system and the degree of internal flexibility that exist in order to withstand external shocks.

“The pandemic caught us at widely different levels of readiness for the unprecedented demands and new modes of education delivery,” the minister admitted.

She said that equally notable is the fact that internally, countries responded to the disruption with varying degrees of alacrity. “It is vital that we create sufficient institutional, organisational and individual capacity for crisis risk management,” Minister Manickchand noted.

She further emphasised that “we should fully embrace the important role that education can play in mitigating, in the first place, the impact of disasters and building our resilience.”

To this end, Minister Manickchand said that regional systems need to be retooled with the required safeguard against such future occurrences.
“The vital role our schools play in the lives of our nation’s children have been reinforced and amplified,” she stressed. Top students for both CAPE and CSEC will be released online at midnight, tonight.

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