Guyana has once again emerged as the top overall performer at the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) and Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams as it recorded results higher than the regional average in 20 of the 33 subject areas offered by CXC.
This year’s performance was highlighted by the Caribbean Examinations Council’s (CXC’s) Director of Operations (DOO) Dr Nicole Manning as she announced the results of the examination yesterday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
Although the results were released by CXC, Guyana is yet to announce this year’s top achievers. Education Minister Priya Manickchand yesterday stated that the announcement will be made soon as the examination department is currently conducting the necessary analysis while simultaneously preparing for the announcement of the National Grade Six Exams today.
Manning in her report stated that 70% of students who sat the June/July examination attained acceptable grades when compared to the 68% average of other regional territories.
“Overall for CAPE as I have said, Guyana performed overall better, marginally better than the region…So overall again for CSEC similarly to CAPE, Guyana’s performance would have been better than the region,” the DOO announced.
Manning pointed out that when compared to previous years, Guyana achieved a general improvement in performance in Mathematics despite the regional average being poor.
During her presentation yesterday, the DOO said that the council is currently analyzing the results to reflect the improvements as the information available to her at the time was not wholly accurate.
“At the time when we would have presented this we would have had some increase in the performance. I should say great increase in the performance in CSEC Mathematics for Guyana, we will have to revisit that… this has really changed and we will make that public,” Manning said as she apologized for the incorrect data on her slide.
On the subject of English Language ‘A’, she noted that Guyana attained 68% passes with acceptable grades… a slight improvement when compared to 2018 and 2019. However, when compared to the region the performance was lower than the 74% average.
For CSEC subjects, Manning announced that Guyana secured 69% passes in Integrated Science while the region achieved 66 %. For Chemistry, Guyana scored 61 % while the region achieved 63 %; for Physics Guyana scored 62 % with the region at 66%; In Principles of Business, she reported Guyana that underperformed, attaining 75% while the region snagged 79%. In Social Studies, Guyana underperformed by 1% as the regional average was set at 54 %. For Information Technology Guyana achieved 93% in comparison to the region’s 89%. For Office Administration Guyana achieved 80% and the region scored 79%. In Electronic Document Preparation Management (EDPM), Guyana recorded 88% while 87% passes was attained in the region. For English “B”, Manning noted an overall decline in performance when compared to previous years. The region achieved 61% passes while Guyana trailed at 54% passes. Further, 9% of students in 2021 achieved grade ones.
Manning said 88% of CAPE students attained acceptable passes of grades One to Five. Guyana, she said, achieved 92% passes in Caribbean Studies and 97 % in Communication Studies. As it related to subjects with units one and two, she said that in Sociology, 96 % was achieved in both units. For Law – units one and two – it was 95 and 96% respectively; Integrated Mathematics, 80%; Pure Mathe-matics – units one and two – 59 and 75% respectively; Chemistry – units one and two – 84 and 95 % respectively; Biology – units one and two – 90 and 97 % respectively.
Manickchand in her address congratulated all the students on their performance and commended their achievements.
“I commend your reliance and efforts in face of such daunting challenges over the past year and half. You should be extremely proud of yourself and should use this experience to propel you into even greater achievements in the future,” the minister was quoted as saying.
