CSEC statistics for QC misleading

Dear Editor,

With respect to an article in the Wednesday, August 25 issue of the Kaieteur News, I find it necessary to state the following:-

At Queen’s College, there are two categories of students writing the CSEC Examination –

Category A: Fifth Form students writing at least five subjects; Category B: Fourth Form students writing Mathematics only.

If Queen’s College is to be compared with other schools, statistics on Category A are the relevant ones, since these relate to the target population in the exercise of comparing different school performances.

The penultimate paragraph of the article states: “It has been deduced that the results for this year reflect a 98.74 percent pass rate when the passes of Grade Ones to Three are considered. Grades One to Two passes on the other hand reflected a 92.91 percent pass rate.”

The facts and figures presented to the public by the sundry media comprise spurious statistics since the Queen’s College target CSEC population of 2010 (94 students) was not used to derive the figures released. Hence, there was a misleading statistical presentation in terms of comparability with other schools. This has done a gross injustice to the QC Fifth Form students of 2010 who worked consistently and diligently to achieve their top positions in the country and the Caribbean.

Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)