GUYANA has again topped the Caribbean in terms of attainment levels at both the Caribbean Secondary Examinations Certificate (CSEC) and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE). This was disclosed by the Director of Operations of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), Dr. Nicole Manning, even though full details of the results are still to be officially released.

The fact that Guyana was able to do so well at the regional examinations despite the COVID-19 pandemic speaks well of the management of the education sector, given the fact that the delivery of face-to-face, school-based education was severely disrupted.

However, the Ministry of Education has put in place a number of compensatory measures to make up for the loss of valuable opportunity time. Among these were the use of social media and other forms of online teaching which, along with limited face-to-face interaction between teachers and students, have paid handsome dividends.

The education system and our teachers in particular must be commended for rising to the challenges and ensuring that the examinations syllabi were fully covered.

Credit must be given to parents and guardians for rendering the necessary support to their children during this difficult time; and no less deserving of commendation are the nation’s students who have not let their teachers and their parents down by putting out an overall performance level that is second to none in the entire Caribbean.

According to Dr. Manning, Guyana recorded an 88 per cent pass rate as compared to a regional average of 87 per cent. And even though that may appear to be a marginal lead, it is the extent to which the country underperformed during the period when the PNC was in power that makes for a better appreciation of our recent success.

It is a known fact that Guyana was at one time at the bottom of the performance ladder in the entire Caribbean. The World Bank in its 1993 Country Report highlighted the fact that secondary school examination results showed clearly that student-learning had declined sharply due largely to underfinancing of the sector, even though our Guyanese students were known to perform well during the early 1960s when the PPP was in office.

Under the PPP/C, not only were our Guyanese students doing better at examinations, but the cohort of students sitting the CSEC also increased significantly.

Interestingly, despite the pandemic which saw a slight decline in the number of students who sat the examinations at the regional level, the lowest cohort for the past four years, Guyanese students not only were able to sit the exams in their full numbers but they also outperformed their regional counterparts in terms of attainment levels in most of the subject areas including the overall best.

It took the return of the PPP/C administration on October 5, 1992, before the decline in student performance was halted and Guyanese students once again took their rightful place as competitors who are second to none in the Caribbean and beyond.

The PPP/C administration must be commended for placing the education sector as a national priority. Congratulations are in order for our Guyanese students who have done their parents, teachers, schools and their country, Guyana, proud.