Top performance in 20 CSEC subjects for Guyana – CXC

…students scored beyond regional average for CSEC, CAPE

In this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE), Guyana has secured better performances than the regional average.

Director of Operations, Dr Nicole Manning made this disclosure on Thursday at the official release of the results at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), in the company of officials from the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) and the Education Ministry.
She informed that 20 subject areas saw top performances, with 70 per cent acceptable grades for CSEC.
“Seventy per cent of the candidates who were registered from Guyana received acceptable grades, compared to the Region’s 68 per cent. For 20 of the 33 subjects that we do overall, they would have had top performance in those,” the CXC official said.
For CAPE, 88 per cent of students received acceptable grades, higher than the Region’s 87 per cent.
“Overall, Guyana’s performance was marginally higher compared with the rest of the Region. Notably, we had 16 units in particular with 100 per cent candidates for Guyana received acceptable Grades One to Five,” she announced.

For CAPE, 92 per cent of students attained acceptable grades for Caribbean Studies, 97 per cent for Communication Studies, 96 per cent for Sociology Unit 1; 96 per cent for Sociology Unit 2; 95 per cent for Law Unit 1; 96 per cent for Law Unit 2; 80 per cent for Integrated Mathematics; 59 per cent for Pure Mathematics 1; 75 per cent for Pure Mathematics 2; 84 per cent for Chemistry Unit 1; 95 per cent for Chemistry Unit 2; 90 per cent for Biology Unit 1 and 97 per cent for Biology Unit 2.
At the CSEC level, Guyana scored higher than the regional average in Integrated Science, Electronic Document Preparation and Management, Office Administration, Information Technology, and Human and Social Biology. The country’s performance was, however, lower than the regional average for Mathematics, Chemistry, Principles of Business, and Social Studies.
In 2021, there was a reduction in the School-Based Assessment (SBA) requirements by as much as 50 per cent in some instances. The requirements for specific subjects were also reduced owing to the prevailing COVID-19 circumstances, specifically for modern languages.
Along with a delayed date for examinations and submission of SBAs by six weeks, the Council also released topics five weeks prior to the sittings. A deferral option was put in place for students if they felt unprepared for the examinations, enabling them to write some or all of their subjects in 2022. Overall, deferrals stood at 1251 subject entries for CAPE and 15,179 for CSEC.

Absenteeism
However, Dr Manning pointed out that this year saw a reduction in both candidate and subject entries for CAPE measuring 27,715 and 110,020 respectively. It is the lowest cohort in four years. The same was observed for CSEC, with 103,445 candidates and 502,859 subject entries.
A trend showed increased absenteeism this year for both cohorts. She pointed out, “It’s the highest we’ve had for four years – 8.83 per cent. I want us to remember that this group would have not necessarily deferred, but decided not to attend the examinations… As we had it for CAPE, we had a large number of absenteeism –11.23 per cent.”
Some 4839 CSEC SBAs or five per cent of the intended target were not submitted to teachers, which the Director asserted called for an analysis to understand the underlying issues. Some 31,270 CAPE students did not submit their SBAs to teachers for a 92.3 per cent submission rate.
She added, “We do have a few SBA scores missing. This is not so much of an alarm for the Caribbean Examinations Council at this time, because we are getting good responses from the local registrars and the Ministries of Education.”
Notable challenges which the Council mustered through were the COVID-19 pandemic, the volcanic eruption in St Vincent and the Grenadines; and Tropical Storm Elsa – all of which had varying impacts on the Region.
Electronic testing was one of seven digital transformations undertaken to keep abreast with demand, with usage increasing by 27 per cent for CAPE and 84 per cent for CSEC.

Top performers
Education Minister Priya Manickchand told media operatives that CXC would determine the names of top students for both examinations, using the standardised protocols.
“At this stage, you don’t know a top student…At this point, what we could tell you is that who received the most Grade Ones. We don’t declare the top students. CXC does that and that’s because a top student requires not only numerical number of subjects, but you have to have a certain combination. For example, a foreign language [or] they might want a TVET type of subject. There’s a different combination that determines what the top student is,” she stated.
She said the list of students who acquired 12 Grade Ones and more will be announced shortly. Today, persons will be able to access their grades on the online portal. (Rupa Seenarine)