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.