CSEC and CAPE Results Are Mixed

– Despite teachers striking at a critical time for student preparation
– Education Minister confirms proactive plans are in place to target weak subject areas

The Ministry of Education reports mixed results for this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Level Examination (CAPE) examinations, according to preliminary results from the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC).
Chief Education Officer Saddam Hussein stressed this while presenting the achievements at a ceremony held at the Queens College Auditorium.

According to Hussain, 721 students from 13 secondary schools and four private centres across the country appeared for the CAPE exam this year, while 701 students appeared for the exam last year.
The overall pass rate (i.e. the percentage of students who achieved pass in grades one to five on the CAPE exam) was 92.57%, which is relatively stable as last year’s pass rate was 93%.

For CSEC, Hussain said a total of 11,612 students sat for the exam; this was a slight decrease from 12,108 students in 2023.
He said an analysis of the preliminary results for 2024 showed that the overall pass rate of CSEC was 67.23 per cent, compared to 67.34 per cent last year.

“We recorded improvement in grades in 12 subjects while seven subjects remained the same; there was no change. Seven subjects were excellent with 90 per cent of students securing grades one to three,” Hussain said.

However, the pass rates in the two most important subjects, English and Mathematics, fell. The pass rate in English fell from 72% to 69%, while the pass rate in Mathematics was 31%.
Talking about the areas where he performed well, Hussain said: “Agricultural science, double award, with a score of 98.85%; Electronic Document Preparation and Management (EDPM), with a score of 93.1%; Dramatic Arts, with a score of 98.98%; and my favorite, Home and Resource Management, with a score of 91.18%.”

put one’s oar in
In her speech, Education Minister Priya Manickchand said the teachers’ strike came at one of the most crucial times when children were preparing for exams.
“I am happy to say that even though the system has been hit so hard and rocked, because of the steps the ministry took to mitigate the impact of the strike, we are not faring as badly as people who objectively sit down and analyse the pre-trial results would suggest,” she said.
In this context, Manickchand added that Guyana’s mathematics scores dropped by three percentage points, while the Caribbean region as a whole dropped by seven percentage points.

The Education Minister told attendees that the ministry will undertake proactive math interventions to identify problem areas and work with schools while ensuring that students are provided with all the necessary equipment and tools.
She said they have surveyed schools with low math scores and will conduct monitoring in about 50 of them to ensure that teachers are teaching content and students understand it.
“So, we will inspect 50 such schools and send inspectors into these schools to ensure that teachers are teaching and students understand the content so that next year we will not have space for first graders aged 14 and above to attend classes here. I am sure this will produce better results,” Minister Manickchand said.