IN response to the recent mathematics outcomes for the 2026 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination, the Ministry of Education plans to create a task force comprising mathematics teachers and retired educators, according to Minister Sonia Parag.
Guyana recorded slight improvement at CSEC 2026, with the national pass rate moving from 32 per cent in 2025 to 34.5 per cent this year.
Minister Parag, in a video recently posted by the ministry’s Facebook page, reiterated the improvement in the results for mathematics, crediting the targeted interventions made to ensure students grasped the concepts.
“We would have had several interventions for mathematics in the last year. One of those significant investments, I believe, is the establishment of maths tents throughout the country for students to be able to come together and be taught by teachers from Georgetown who give their time to places like the hinterland, etcetera, and also creating online spaces for students to learn mathematics and I think that really did help us a lot,” she said.
She did note however that more can be done to ensure that these interventions are built upon.
According to Minister Parag, this means that numeracy assessments will need to be conducted, and at earlier grades to ensure that when pupils are leaving primary school, they have a “good grasp of mathematics as well as literacy assessments so that children can be able to harness their comprehensive skills”.
The minister stated that comprehensive skills development will help students in both subject areas, especially in argumentative writing.
Reflecting, Minister Parag said that at the CARICOM Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) meeting which was hosted from August 12 to 13, 2026 at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, the conversation to create long-term interventions was started.
“We are going to ensure that moving forward that we set up a task force and we will be including educators, and those retired mathematics teachers to assist us with that task force and ensure that we can strengthen mathematics,” she said.
