Preliminary results of the May/June 2024 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations have indicated that Rudranauth Sankar and Pradesh Dwarka of Anna Regina Secondary School, along with Dave Chowtie of Queen’s College (QC) have all tied for the top spot at the exams. Meanwhile, Aniyah Couchman of Queen’s College topped the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE).
This was revealed today by the Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand who announced the country’s CSEC and CAPE preliminary results in the auditorium at Queen’s College.
This year, approximately 721 students wrote CAPE compared to 701 last year and the exams were conducted at 13 secondary schools and four private centers across the country.
Among the list of top performers at CAPE is Lateisha Mc Arthur of Queen’s College who secured eight Grade Ones, four Grade Twos, and two Grade Threes; and Omari Holder of St. Stanislaus College who secured eight Grade Ones, five Grade Twos, and one Grade Four.
Sheridan Dyal, Makaila Henry, Arthur Roberts, Gabriella Roberts and Korphiena Stephen, all of Queen’s College have secured six Grade Ones, and Jenna Rebecca Hoosein of Saraswati Vidya Niketan has also obtained six Grade Ones.
For top CSEC performers, there is Brianna Sobers of QC who attained 20 Grades Ones and five Grade Twos; Randhir Toney of Anna Regina Secondary who attained 19 Grade Ones and seven Grade Twos; Venisha Lall of Anna Regina Secondary who obtained 18 Grade Ones, eight Grade Twos and three Grade Threes; Sohail Mohamad of New Amsterdam Secondary who attained 18 Grade Ones and three Grade Twos; and Makenna Johnny of QC who attained 18 Grade Ones and two Grade Twos.
Providing this year’s statistical report of the performances, Chief Education Officer (CEO), Saddam Hussain said the overall pass rate for CAPE which saw students getting Grades One to Five is 92.57% in 2024, while in 2023 it was 93%
He noted that students obtaining Grades One to Five, they saw an increase in that, this year. Additionally, they saw several subjects attaining 100% passes, which include Agriculture Science unit 1, Animation and Gaming Design unit 1 &2, Applied Mathematics unit 2, Computer Science unit 2, Digital Media unit 1 &2, Economic unit 2, Environmental Science unit 1 just to name a few.
According to the CEO, Caribbean Studies and Communication Studies which are compulsory subjects continue to record a pass rate of over 90%.
Moving to CSEC, Hussain detailed that the overall pass rate Grades One to Three is 67.34% in 2024 when compared to 67.23% last year.
“We recorded improved performances in 12 subjects while 7 subjects remained constant they did not change. Outstanding performances were recorded in seven subjects where 90% of the students gained Grades One to Three,” he shared.
Some of the subjects were Agriculture Science double award – 98.5% pass, Electronic Document, Preparation and Management (EDPM) with 93.1%, Theatre Arts with 98.98%, and Family Resource Management with 91.18%.
As it relates to Mathematics and English, the CEO said the two subject areas declined when compared to last year. “Grades One to Three passes in English have a decline from 72% in 2023 to 69% in 2024. English B moved from 64% in 2023 to 70% in 2024.
“Mathematics recorded a pass rate of 31% in 2024, so there was a reduction when compared to 34 % in 2023. Additional Mathematics recorded a pass rate of 53% which is an increase from 2023,” he explained.
It was also revealed that mixed performances were recorded in the Business subjects, while the performances in the sciences improved except for Chemistry and Integrated Science.
Delivering the featured address on Tuesday, Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand said that despite the teachers’ strike which happened earlier this year, students still performed well in the examinations.
She said, “Guyana had a strike at one of the most crucial times in these children’s preparation and you know it more than me, some schools didn’t and some schools did and I’m really pleased to say that even with that harshness and shock to the system, we didn’t do as badly as someone sitting objectively trying to analyze pre-results what we would have done, we didn’t do as badly.”
According to the minister, this is because of the measures the ministry took to lessen the impact of that strike.
Listening to the statistics presented, the minister noted the drop in the mathematics pass rate and said that interventions would be put in place to improve the performances. It is on this note she announced that by September, every single student in the country will be given a scientific calculator, geometry set, past papers organized by math specialists, graph books, and all the textbooks they need.
Additionally, Manickchand said that there have been schools that repeatedly attain a Grade Four in mathematics.
In addressing this, she explained on Tuesday, “We have a pull where we looked at schools that were repeatedly getting Grade Fours, how could we tighten these screws and make sure these students pass mathematics with a view to matriculating onto tertiary. And so we are doing 50 of those schools where there will be monitors going into the schools to make sure teachers are teaching the topics and that children are understanding those topics.”
It was stated that students who have reviews and queries with their grades should have it done with the ministry before September 6, 2024.
