Only 38.37% of the local students who wrote Mathematics at this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations were able to secure a pass.
This is almost 7% less than the 45.07% pass rate for the core subject in 2015. It is also less than the 38.75% pass rate that was recorded in 2014.
“We can never be satisfied as long as students are failing Mathematics,” Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education Delma Nedd told reporters yesterday.
Asked to account for this year’s decline, Nedd noted that this drop is reflected regionally. “I have been told that there is a decline across the Caribbean,” she said.
The Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) had announced last week that a 44% pass rate in Mathematics this year represented a drop from the 57% recorded in 2015.
Responding to questions at a news conference at the National Centre for Education Research and Deve-lopment (NCERD), Nedd said that the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the State of the Education System, which is currently being conducted, is expected to present policy makers with clear ideas as to where deficiencies exist in the system.
“It [the CoI] concludes in December…so we hope that coming out of that enquiry is a recommendation going forward. Next year, at policy level, we will introduce new initiatives and measures to change the picture that we are seeing currently,” she said.
Candidates were, however, able to improve the pass rate for the other core subject—English Language. The English Language pass rate this year moved above the 50% mark for the first time in several years, with 59.3% of candidates securing a Grade III or higher pass.
This is a 10% improvement over the 49.36% pass rate recorded in the subject last year and 13% more than the 46.98% who passed in 2014.
This year, 12,809 candidate sat examinations in 35 subjects. Of these subjects, there were ‘excellent’ performances in 15, where the Grade One to Three passes exceeded 75%. These subjects were Agriculture Science (DA), Agricultural Science (SA), Biology, Food & Nutrition, French, Home Economics Management, Information Technology, Principles of Business, Religious Education, Theatre Arts, Electronic Document Preparation and Management, Physical Education & Sport, Music, Building Technology (Const) and Building Technology (Woods).
‘Satisfactory’ performances were also recorded in 18 subjects, where the Grades One to Three passes exceeded 50%, while Grades One to Four passes were in excess of 75%. These subjects were Caribbean History, Clothing & Textiles, Economics, English A, English B, Geography, Integrated Science, Office Administration, Physics, Principles of Accounts, Social Studies, Spanish, Technical Drawing, Visual Arts, Human & Social Biology, Additional Mathematics, Electrical & Electronic Technology and Mechanical Engineering Technology.
The country was able to record a marginal increase in the overall pass rate at the General and Technical proficiencies for Grade One to Three. In 2016, the pass rate was 63.39%, compared with 62.72% in 2015.
