NGSA 2025 breaks records as all subjects exceed 50% pass rate for 1st time

– CXC praises Guyana’s ‘remarkable’ results, best scores in nation’s history

In a historic milestone for Guyana, students who sat the 2025 National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) recorded significant improvements across all subject areas, marking the country’s best NGSA performance to date.

On Wednesday, scores of teachers, students and education officials from across the country flooded the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) to witness the announcement of the highly anticipated NGSA results.  A breakdown of the country’s performance was provided by the Director of Operations, Examination Services at the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), Dr Nicole Manning.
According to the official statistics, English recorded its strongest performance in the past five years, with a pass rate of 69.25%. Social studies also showed notable improvement, with 64.77% of candidates scoring 50 per cent or higher. Science, which had seen a slight decline last year with a 54% pass rate (down from 55.11% in 2023), rebounded strongly in 2025. This year, 63.7% of students passed the subject, surpassing the 50% benchmark.
Mathematics, traditionally one of the more challenging subjects, also showed encouraging progress. For the first time in the country’s history, more than half of the students—55.51%—passed the exam.

“Everything has moved generally upwards, and when we compare the average performance for the subjects, we are seeing a nice picture here that needs to keep on going. I know the work will continue, and it is very good… So, I must say congratulations on behalf of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC): good job to the Ministry of Education and, more so, the parents – good job!”
Also present at the event was Education Minister Priya Manickchand, who reflected on the state of NGSA performance when she first assumed office. She acknowledged past challenges but emphasised that, due to strategic investments and targeted policies, the education sector has seen a significant turnaround.
In fact, the minister proudly stated that, for the first time in the country’s history, all subject areas recorded pass rates above the 50% mark.
“When I came in, in 2020, 49% of our children had achieved 50% or more. Today it’s 63.7% of our children who achieve 50% or more crossing that 120 mark. That’s taking more than 3,000 children, actual human beings, and putting them in a place where they could score more than 50%, because we gave them the textbooks and the breakfast and the teachers and the classrooms to sit in and the monitoring.”
Meanwhile, the 2025 sitting of the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) took place on April 16 and 17. The assessment was primarily based on the Grade Five curriculum, followed by content from a consolidated curriculum.

However, the ministry reminded stakeholders that key concepts from grades three and four are also included in the examination, reflecting the cumulative nature of the assessment.
This year, more than 15,000 pupils across Guyana sat the NGSA examinations of 2025, with the Ministry of Education reporting a record-high attendance rate of 98 per cent, the best turnout since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
A total of 15,813 students were registered to write the two-day national examinations, and of that number, 15,497 turned up for the assessment. Among those sitting the exams were 115 students with Special Education Needs (SEND), and, notably, 91 students wrote the assessments in Spanish — a historic first, introduced last year.
NGSA is spearheaded by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC). Similar to the structure since 2016, CXC prepares the examination, supervises its administration, marks the scripts, conducts quality checks and conducts consequential reviews if any are requested.
For this national exam candidates are tested in four subjects, namely, mathematics, English, science and social studies. The examination in each subject area consists of two papers. Paper One consists of multiple-choice items, while Paper Two consists of essay-type or open-ended items.