– as more students excel at CSEC, CAPE
– points to rise in top-performing students and improved results at government and hinterland schools

Minister of Education Sonia Parag says the improved performance recorded at this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) examinations is evidence that the Government’s continued investment in education is yielding results.
In a video message posted to the Ministry of Education’s social media pages, Parag highlighted the increase in students achieving 12 or more Grade Ones, noting that the number rose from 59 last year to 78 this year.
“And as we were going through the results, I was pleasantly surprised because we moved from those who would have achieved 12 Grade Ones and more from the number 59 to 78, and I was very, very proud of that fact,” the minister said.
According to Parag, the improvement reflects the impact of investments aimed at expanding access to education and strengthening the country’s education infrastructure.
She pointed specifically to the construction of new schools in communities where educational facilities were previously unavailable, as well as efforts to bring education closer to students in hinterland, rural, remote and riverine communities.
“It means that all of the investment that we’ve been making as a government in education, building schools where there were no schools, giving access to education to students who previously would not have had the benefit of having access so close to their communities, such as the hinterland, rural or remote areas, riverine areas as well,” Parag said.
The minister said the impact of these investments was particularly evident in the performance of students from hinterland communities and schools that had historically struggled to achieve stronger examination results.
As such, she described the improvement at those institutions as “drastic”, noting that a number of schools that had not previously performed at a certain level recorded significantly better outcomes this year.
“Of course, you still have our national schools that are doing very well: Queen’s College, the Bishop’s High, Saint Stanislaus College, Saint Rose’s, Saint Joseph, along with the private schools,” Parag said.
However, she stressed that the latest results also demonstrated that outstanding academic performance is increasingly being seen across government schools.
Further to this, the minister indicated that the majority of schools producing strong performances and outstanding students this year were government institutions, with only one exception.
“So that in itself tells you that the investment has been working,” Parag said.