Caribbean commits to implementing innovative solutions to address decline in math at CXC

…Guyana exploring digital proposals – President Ali

In light of the detrimental consequences associated with the constant decline of the overall pass rate for Mathematics at the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) and the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC), Caribbean Heads of Government have committed to implementing innovative solutions to address the issue.
This announcement was made during President Dr Irfaan Ali during the commission ceremony of the Yarrowkabra Secondary School on Thursday.
According to the president, the decline in math has become an alarming issue and has captured the attention of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), who have since expressed interest on examining tools available globally to overcome this challenge.
“The issue of mathematics has now captured the attention of every single head of state and prime minister in the region, and it is now an agenda for the Heads of Government in Caricom. That is to tell you the issues and challenges that we face is not a Jamaica issue, Barbados issue, Trinidad issue or Guyana issue. It has now become a collective issue that we must address.”
“I believe that we have to look at how varied scenarios have affected our results in mathematics, because mathematics calls for more analytical thinking, more problem problem solving type of approach. Whether our education system, our teaching delivery, whether our teaching delivery is effective enough to deal with what mathematics require,” President Ali said.
In 2024, the overall regional performance for math at CAPE was 92.19 per cent, which was described as a “slight reduction” from previous year, 2023.
Specifically, pure mathematics unit one saw a significant decrease from 93 percent in 2023 to 86percent in 2024.
For CSEC, there was an overall performance of 69 percent, slightly consistent to 2023. Mathematics saw a significant drop from 43 percent in 2023 to 36 percent in 2024, with most candidates achieving grade three.
As it relates to Guyana performance this year, there was also a decrease, with its pass rate falling from 34 percent in 2023 to 31 percent in 2024.

President Ali explained that Guyana through the Education Ministry is currently examining ways to leverage technology to deliver the best environment and the best methods through which improvements in mathematics can reflect in performance.
In fact, he disclosed that the ministry has already put together three proposals to advance the use of online learning throughout the country.
This will include the digitisation of textbooks, teaching material, learning material and the digitization of delivery.
“I’ve asked the Minister of Education, not to wait on the heads of government for us to do some introspection and to look globally at what is available as tools to help us to overcome this challenge. Important in a digitization platform is e learning and online education. We have about three proposals now that we are examining those deals with online education, how is it 24 hours every day, we can place our schools, our students, in a classroom scenario, in an education scenario, in a learning environment, getting the best resource that we have nationally, putting those resources in a digital format and delivering online education so that there are no gaps,” he added.