Basseterre, St. Kitts, September 28, 2020 (SKNIS): Minister of Education, the Honourable Jonel Powell, gave the preliminary Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Examination results on September 28, which showed that there were more acceptable grades recorded this year over that of 2019.
During a press conference, held at the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (CFBC) Conference Room, Minister Powell stated that St. Kitts and Nevis entered some 1762 candidates to write the CSEC Examinations in 32 subject areas this year realising an increase of 101 candidates over 2019. 1327 candidates wrote exams in St. Kitts. 742 of the entries were private candidates while 585 were students registered across the seven secondary institutions.
Nevis, on the other hand, recorded 435 candidates writing CSEC Examinations in 28 subject areas. 85 of that total were school candidates while 250 registered privately.
Minister Powell said that based on final statistics published by CXC, the Federation recorded 6342 subject entries for CSEC Examinations this year.
“Although 6342 subject entries were recorded, from the 1762 candidates, 6079 were actually reported by the CXC council as being sat with 1464 entries in Nevis and 4615 in St. Kitts,” said the minister. “The fallout of 263 was due to absenteeism.”
Minister Powell stated that acceptable grades for CSEC Examinations are grades one to three. He noted that during the examination period under review St. Kitts and Nevis recorded 5109 acceptable grades. This is some 818 more than last year.
This year, there were 1486 grade one’s, 1920 grade two’s and 1703 grade three’s. Minister Powell said that secondary schools in St. Kitts returned 3143 acceptable grades, while those in Nevis recorded 1012. Private candidates in St. Kitts attained 724 passing grades with 230 in Nevis.
The Education Minister noted that in St. Kitts, the Washington Archibald High School received the highest acceptable grades being 829 from 999 entries. On Nevis, the Charlestown Secondary emerged as the school with the highest acceptable grades, some 568 from 642 entries.
Of the 5109 acceptable grades returned for CSEC Examinations 4155 were obtained by school candidates and 954 by private registrants for a national pass rate of 84.03 percent as against 80.37 percent recorded in 2019, said Minister Powell.
“So we are pleased to report an increase in our national pass rate this year over last year,” he said.
The Federation recorded a national pass rate of 86.32 percent for English A which saw 700 acceptable grades from 811 entries.
“This is a slight increase over 2019 which realised 84.15 percent,” said Minister Powell. “There was however a marked decrease in English B, which scored 49 acceptable grades from 69 entries when compared to 61 acceptable grades from 71 entries recorded in 2019 with a pass rate of 85.92 percent. This year’s English B returned a national pass rate of 71.01 percent.”
Minister Powell said that Mathematics returned 503 acceptable grades from 832 entries with a pass rate of 60.46 percent showing a modest increase over 2019’s 51.06 percent.
Principles of Business, Office Administration, EDPM, Physical Education and Information Technology continue to be popular subject choices nationally returning remarkable acceptable grades and a national pass rate of over 90 percent in each discipline, said the minister.
The Education Minister stated that 970 less than acceptable grades representing four, five and six, from 6079 entries were returned nationally.
“Though it may be 15.9 percent this should not go un-noticed as it points to the need to engage students differently to assist them in performing creditably as 970 less acceptable grades are 970 too many,” said Minister Powell.
The award of ungraded results of CSEC candidates who should have received grades is being investigated and an update will be provided in a subsequent report.
Candidates are seeking to challenge grades received by utilizing CXC’s query and review process. Therefore, final statistics may be impacted, said Minister of Education, the Honourable Jonel Powell.
