Grade Six exams see rise in English passes, drop in Maths

Top student, Naila Rahaman being congratulated yesterday by Minister of Education Nicolette Henry. (Department of Public Information photo)

Although passes in English at this year’s National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) saw a rise to 60%, it is the only subject in which a pass rate was recorded above 50% as only 46% of the 14,145 students who sat the exams in March earned passes in Science and Social Studies, while a mere 38% passed Mathematics.

Notably, while English saw an increase of almost 6% in the pass rate and Social Studies a decrease of 1%, Mathematics, which has been the focus of millions of dollars in remedial interventions, saw a decrease in its pass rate by approximately 7%.

A 13.85% pass rate in Mathematics in 2016 saw President David Granger issuing a directive which materialised as the $49 million Emergency Mathematical Intervention Plan, which officials claimed resulted in an across-the-board improvement in 2017.