There has been a significant decline in the performance of CSEC students around the region this year in English A, with 47% achieving grades 1-3, while only a few candidates were able to score full marks on each Math paper.

This was disclosed yesterday at the Guyana International Conference Centre at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara,  when representatives of the Caribbean Examinations Council visited to officially release the region-wide results which has been done for the first time in Guyana.

Presenting the results was Dr. Gordon Harewood, Senior Assistant Registrar, Examinations Development and Production Division, who said that summary writing in English remains a challenge while performance on the Understanding profile proved to be significantly better than on expression.

In the area of Mathematics, he said that some of the content that should have been mastered at the lower secondary level is still challenging students at CSEC level. He recommended that students preparing to sit Pure Math at CAPE  first complete the Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence (CCSLC) which he said would provide a solid foundation to address observed weaknesses in both English A and Math.

“CCSLC spent a lot of time trying to ensure that students master those fundamental competencies and skills that they should acquire in order to go on to higher classes at the secondary level,” Harewood explained.

Additional Math, he continued, started this year with very small entries but very commendable performances. It was noted that 58% of candidates secured grades 1-3.

“We are really encouraging all of our candidates who intend to go on to do Pure Math at CAPE to take up Additional Math. There have been complaints that students who write Pure Math do so with some gaps that still need to be remedied so this syllabus was constructed specifically with that in mind and it does provide a great platform for success at Pure Math,” Harewood explained.

There was a  decline of 3% in the percentage of candidates who scored grades 1-3 at the English B exams with the most evident decline on the Poetry profile.

As it relates to Information Technology, there was an improved performance as compared to 2010 with over 80% acquiring grades 1-3. However, it was noted that a number of candidates demonstrated poor examination strategies such as rewriting the question which is  considered irrelevant.

At CSEC Physics, there were topics that related to modern physics and it was found that while some candidates performed exceptionally well, many did very poorly.

In the Agricultural Science exam, there was an 80% achievement of grades 1-3 regionally. In Technical Drawing, he continued, performance was good although it declined in comparison to previous years.With regards to CSEC Caribbean History, he said that there were challenges in the requirement of extended essays, which saw forms of plagiarism. Teachers were urged to monitor and reject plagiarism to avoid it   reaching the level of CXC.

Basic areas that would require attention, he said, with simple parts like presentation, line work, labelling diagrams, etc, were ignored.

12-year-olds

Highlighted was the achievement of two 12-year-olds who secured grade 1 in Mathematics and another 12-year-old who scored a grade 1 in Agricultural Science.

There was much improvement at CAPE this year, with better performances at Communication Studies and Pure Math.

Meanwhile Unit 1 Biology has also seen a distinct improvement in performance at CAPE while Unit 2 is “as solid as a rock, stable.” ]

CAPE Law too has been a challenge across the region since qualified persons to teach this subject are lacking, Harewood stated. Also, in Management of Business, there has been an improvement in performance on Unit 1 and a steady performance in Unit 2.

And in Sociology, there has been a slight decline in the performance at Unit 2 with an increased number of candidates.

He also touched briefly on results of the CCSLC exam, noting that there has been 85.8% acceptable grades in English, 73.7% in Mathematics, 81.5% in Social Studies, 84.3% in Integrated Science, 73.0% in French and 68.4% in Spanish.

Addressing the forum also was CXC Registrar, Dr. Didacus Jules, who emphasized that in order for there to be steady improvement, there must be less lamentation and more decisive action.

It was noted that an entire system reform is needed which is aligned to the challenges as well as the opportunities in a very dynamic global environment.

Academically minded

“There is no such thing in education. Every student is capable of learning. It is we who are not capable of teaching. So the problem is not the student… the problem is the approaches that would make it possible for the student to learn… it is one simple objective that we must set in this region; make learning fun. If we make learning fun, all these problems we face will disappear,” he opined.

The CXC Registrar also pointed out that there are broader issues that must not be forgotten and which are putting the education system under great pressure.

“I see more and more our teachers under pressure because parents are not playing their role… we all have our role to play in this enterprise. What we must recognize is that education is under great strain and it does not need people to stand on the outside, we need people who are prepared to put their shoulder behind the wheels… whether you are a parent, an employer, whatever you are, a clergy person, you have a role to play. We need to take some of the strain off of the teachers. Teachers are not responsible for teaching good manners in school.

A parent is supposed to do that and teachers should reinforce it,” Jules explained.

Education Minister Priya Manickchand in her address said that Guyana is celebrating the fact that we have moved away from a period when all the top students matriculated from Queen’s College.

“We are now able to celebrate all of Guyana when we celebrate our top students,” she said, making reference to Guyana’s top CSEC student, Sarah Hack of Abram’s Zuil Secondary on the Essequibo Coast.

“I am not a pessimist but I do wish to confront the dismal results we have seen… I think we need to be somewhere close to despair  when we look at the results in the core areas which tells us that our children are going to have a lot of doors closed to them,” Manickchand said.

She too agreed that there is a need to stop lamenting and instead to start tangibly doing something about improving the performances.

“We must firstly accept and pronounce the horror that has been our English and Mathematics grades for almost all of our history… All our citizens must understand this to be a problem and all must be consciously engaged in the solution,” she noted.

Manickchand urged education ministers and education officers in the region to never be hesitant to disclose the reality of the sector.

“Those realities should not be discredited simply because they fear criticism in the hands of the opposition parties in their respective countries; a weapon with which the government of the day could be beaten. The education of our boys and girls should never be politicized,” she posited.

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2012/news/guyana/08/17/significant-regional-decline-seen-in-csec-performance/

–    offended by Minister’s school arson statement
“We came here today because the Minister of Education, in the wake of the arson that was carried out on a school in Linden, promptly pointed fingers at the Linden protesters, when in fact the people of Linden were the ones who arrested the alleged arsonists and turned them over to the police,” said Working People’s Alliance (WPA) executive David Hinds yesterday while explaining the reason that demonstrators mounted a protest at the office of the Education Minister.
The Protest was supported by Red Thread, social activists and politicians.

Recently, Linden suffered the fiery destruction of one of its schools. On the day of the incident, Education Minister Priya Manickchand issued a statement denouncing the act and the demonstrators yesterday asserted that she essentially blamed it on the Linden protesters.
“A section of her statement read ‘no person in their right mind can argue that to burn bridges, block roads and burn a school constitute peaceful protest’. Is that not blaming the protesters?”
Social activist Frederick Kissoon said that the Minister of Education has “unapologetically and shamefully attributed the burning of the One Mile Primary school to the protesters”.

“We have rejected that, and we are asking for her to provide the evidence that the protesters have done that,” Kissoon stated emphatically.
He added: “We believe that Minister Manickchand has now taken the lead in the sordid defence of the government’s brutality and authoritarian handling of the Linden protest and we need to expose her.”
Kissoon also opined that Manickchand has taken on a “vulgar defence” of Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee in parliament.

This is following the no confidence motion filed against the Minister by the joint opposition following the fatal shooting of three protesters in Linden.
David Hinds said that “Minister Manickchand has to realize that as Education Minister, she is custodian of one of the most important sectors in any society and we feel that she should not get herself embroiled in this kind of political controversy”.
“She needs to decide if she wants to play dirty politics or if she wants to pay attention to the Education sector in this country which she herself said needs badly repairing. We want to warn her that if she continues down the road she is going, she is going to suffer the same fate (no confidence motion) as Mr. Rohee. We are going to lobby our parliamentarians. To go about the place accusing those people of arson is really a slap in the face for Linden,” Hinds stated firmly.

“Minister Manickchand should be visiting Linden to make sure that those who will be turning out to school in a couple of weeks are prepared to do that.”
Asked whether he sees it possible for schools to reopen in the community come September, Hinds said “we are pushing for that, education is an absolute necessity.”
Michael Carrington expressed concern that “so many Lindeners were arrested following various acts while no-one up to today has been arrested for the murder of those three men”.
“Someone took the lives of those children’s father and today he walks free while people were arrested for arson and protesting.”

Dear Editor,

The Kaieteur News editorial entitled ‘Hypocrisy in Education‘ (August 12), is highly insulting and fraught with inaccuracies.  Unquestionably, the information provided for the media in 2012 was far more comprehensive than in previous years.  Each year, there are extensive discussions regarding what should be released and the structure of same.

These discussions/debates within the ministry, ultimately lead to the acceptance of the need to recognize the hard work of those high achievers, regardless of where they come from, while still giving value to the efforts all of our students and teachers throughout the system.

This point was further reinforced at the press conference held.  To suggest, as this editorial does, that officers of this ministry conspired to dupe the public in the dissemination of this year’s CSEC results is untrue and highly disrespectful.

Clearly, one has to accept, whether we agree or not, that the nation has grown used to the practice of recognizing the ‘high flyers.’ Even further, these students do deserve praise for their hard work and above average achievements—many in the face of extremely difficult circumstances.

That was the extent of the exercise of naming 40 of these 175 exceptional students.  What should be noted, however, is that if the editor had properly evaluated the list he alludes to, he would have seen that these students are now emerging from institutions spread all across the nation and not all from Queens College as he stated.  So the “premier school in the country, collecting the top 1% from the 6th Grades” did not produce the 175 top students at CSEC as was clearly implied.  Students and teachers from Abram’s Zuil, Cotton Field and Anna Regina Secondary, West Demerara, Stewartville and Zeeburg Secondary, Annandale and Hope Secondary, Berbice High and New Amsterdam Multilateral, Skeldon Line Path, Tagore Memorial, Corentyne Comprehensive and JC Chandisingh Secondary, Mackenzie High, Central and North Georgetown Secondary have every reason to be proud of their accomplishments.

To add insult to injury, the editorial goes on to state that the eight or more Grade Ones is what the ministry deems a “good” result and as such 99% of this year’s cohort did not make the ministry’s “cut-off criterion.” For years, as former Minister Baksh repeatedly declared, and the current Minister reinforced at several public engagements reported on by Kaieteur News, the ministry has been emphasizing that the matriculation requirements of five subjects including English and Mathematics are our clear focus.  Unfortunately, given the limited time between the release of the information to the Ministry of Education and its public online dissemination, which occurred later the day of the press conference, the computation of this data was not possible.

This too was pointed out at the press conference.

On another point of note, the Ministry of Education has never prohibited “extra tuition on the school premises at no extra cost to the students.” We maintain that students should not pay for lessons conducted in public schools. Even further, we have, as all other territories in the region, recognized that this year’s performance has deep implications for our approach towards the preparation of our students.  As such, an extensive analysis of this year’s performance is ongoing with emphasis on expanding the areas which have delivered encouraging results and correcting the deficiencies.  No mention was made in this editorial of the dimensions of this year’s performance that are highly encouraging, suggesting that there was no interest in presenting a balanced position in relation to our students’ performance.  The Stabroek News editorial on Monday, August 13, reflects the quality of journalism one expects from a premier publishing outfit and raises pertinent questions which will be effectively answered over the course of this evaluative exercise.  As such, I agree with the KN editor that “we will all have to take a deep breath and quit with the gamesmanship.” The ministry remains receptive to all constructive engagements regarding improving our students’ performance and will continue to work assiduously to that end.  The nation deserves better!

Yours faithfully,
Olato Sam
Chief Education Officer
Ministry of Education

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2012/opinion/letters/08/15/the-matriculation-requirement-of-five-subjects-including-english-and-mathematics-is-the-ministry-of-educations-clear-focus/

The recent results of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examinations have given us cause for retrospection and what we are seeing only leaves us more depressed than the previous year. For starters, we continue to experience horrendous performances in Mathematics and English—the language we are supposed to be speaking at the drop of a hat.

Indeed this situation is not unique to Guyana. Minister Priya Manickchand in a statement noted that this trend is extended across the region. Some states in the United States are also grappling with this problem.
Some have devised strategies that seem to be working. They are focusing on the discipline of the teachers. They go further. They publish a list of the poor performing schools alongside those that have improved. This is an annual thing so that parents and other observers could determine what is best for their children. The conclusion is that people make the system work.

Guyana should do the same. But there is more. If it rains ever so slightly teachers stay at home, then walk into the school the next day without even a “sorry I was absent.” The heads allow this to happen. There are no sanctions for absence and lateness.
We have had a look at some other systems that have guaranteed a turnaround in their academic performances. In one education district every teacher has a key to his or her classroom. In short, every form is headed by a teacher. If that teacher is absent then the classroom is closed. Surely this will not escape notice.
In one city school, a head spends a lot of time tracking down teachers who prefer to lounge in the staff room even as they have classes to supervise. However, that head is not supported by the administration of the Education Ministry. When she reports these teachers since she does not have the power to suspend, these teachers invoke friendship with people in the administration and escape punishment.

This poor attitude is common in the wider society and has led to massive garbage piles in various parts of the city, not least among them the compound of the High Court. In which other country can people remove the decorative rails around the court with impunity?
The situation is allowed to continue because nobody is prepared to protect his area of work. A salary is received at the end of the month and that is all that is necessary.

Some of us become annoyed when the older people complain that the colonial days were better. We accuse these people of being steeped in the past, of being foreign-minded. What we do not consider is the fact that the colonials had systems that pushed us to the top of the literacy ladder in the region. There were school inspectors, incentives for good performance and rigid discipline. We have taken control of our systems with disastrous results.
Teachers are not allowed to discipline children; parents are allowed to walk into schools and assault teachers who have decided that coupled with their penchant for not working, they are going to opt for self-preservation.
Fortunately, there are magistrates who impose some harsh sentences on parents who walk into schools as though they own the institution.

Former Education Minister Shaik Baksh, asked about the school inspectorate, said that they were few and that the batch could only visit a school every three years.
Today, there is one school less. The inspectors are in a position to breathe a sigh of relief, but the community of One Mile Wismar is angry. An idiot torched the building in which over 800 children tried to get an education. The idiot claimed that someone paid him $200,000 to conduct the dastardly act.
It is not enough that the community beat him before handing him over to the police. He is going to be granted bail and perhaps allowed to disappear.

It boggles the mind that this idiot could actually contemplate robbing children of an education. Guyana is in the doldrums when its people could destroy a school at a time when people are complaining about the education system.

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/08/14/perpetrating-illiteracy/

EDUCATION MINISTER, Priya Manickchand, has said that the Mathematics and English pilot project which ran over a four-month period of January to May this year facilitated a significant increase in Grades One to Three passes in 18 of the schools in which it was implemented. Speaking of the results of this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams at a recent press conference, the minister noted that “even in the face of the dismal results we’ve gotten across the region (Caribbean), Guyana has reason to celebrate and may even have some lessons that we can share.”

Ms. Manickchand said that the overall pass rate in the pilot schools was 39.85% in Mathematics, and 52.05% in English Language. She noted that not only did these schools perform better than they did last year, but their pass rates in these two subjects were above the national and regional averages. Some of the schools which saw significant improvement were: West Demerara Secondary (from 62.6% in 2011 to 80.53% in 2012), Berbice high School (from 12.8% in 2011 to 51.56% in 2012) and Christ Church Secondary (from 36.4% in 2011 to 61.91% in 2012).
The minister noted that the pilot project was implemented in 36 schools from every administrative region in the country, and these schools were not the top schools, but were the schools which were performing poorly.  According to her, the pilot schools had a total of a little over 7,000 students, and additional resources and enhanced supervision were given to them.

The Government of Guyana ensured that each child had the relevant text books, calculators, geometry sets, graph paper, and study guides, as well as extra lessons and classes. They also engaged the assistance of volunteers who aided in the supervision of how the programmes were working, such as ensuring that each syllabus was finished, and that extra classes were being held.
Ms. Manickchand said that during the course of the pilot project, she visited each of the schools on several occasions, and met with the students and their parents. She noted that while some of the pilot schools showed significant improvement, there were also some that did not do better, and some that even did worse. She attributed this to the fact that in some schools, there was a very small turn out of parents. The minister said that “everybody has to hold hands here to make sure our children do well.” She noted that in one of the schools which had a very small turn out of parents, the pass rate was only 2%.

The Education Minister said that private schools were also called in and told what was expected of them. According to her, the administrators for these schools were given past papers and told to photocopy them for distribution to the students.

Ms. Manickchand said that if there was so much improvement over such a short period of time that this project was carried out, then there’s great promise for even more improvement over a one-year period.
“The overall aim of the programme is to increase the number of candidates securing passes in Mathematics and English Language,” Ms. Manickchand reiterated.

Source: https://guyanachronicle.com/2012/08/14/mathematics-english-pilot-project-contributes-to-significant-increase-in-grades-one-to-three-csec-passes

THE Ministry of Education in a press release yesterday condemned the burning of the One-Mile Primary School at Linden, the largest primary school in Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Upper Bebrice), which left 830 Guyanese children school-less. 
According to the press release, the burning down of the school will not only affect the innocent children, but it will create grave hardship for all those involved. “It will be challenging for the ministry to place the more than 830 children into schools that are already filled” the press release noted.

It also stated that it will be challenging for those schools that will now be forced to take in the children, as “all the schools taking in and the children attending will certainly suffer as they will be accommodating far beyond their capacity and hence teaching far below their maximum.”
The parents of the children of One- Mile Primary School will now be faced with the burden of finding transportation and other money to send their children to other schools, as the one closest to their home was burnt to the ground.
“As we know, schools are not built overnight, so this is a most tragic circumstance that will prevail for as long as the children are forced to attend these other schools. We will stand with our education officers, head teachers and teachers, parents and students throughout what will surely be a most difficult period” the press release stated.
The ministry is urging “every peace loving person and citizen who recognises education as a necessary tool for poverty alleviation” to immediately condemn the burning down of schools.
The press release noted that the right to peaceful protest is enshrined in the constitution, but “no person in their right mind, however, can argue that to burn bridges, block roads and burn schools constitute peaceful protest.”

Source: https://guyanachronicle.com/2012/08/13/education-ministry-vehemently-condemns-razing-of-one-mile-primary-in-linden-830-students-now-school-less

…lambastes politicians advancing “wild, undemocratic agendas”

 “To burn a school is to remove the most necessary tool of poverty alleviation…To have burnt One Mile Primary is to attempt to condemn all the children attending that school to a life of poverty” – Education Minister  

Education Minister Priya Manickchand yesterday swiftly condemned the torching of a Primary School in Region 10, saying that no person in their right mind can argue that to burn bridges, block roads and burn schools constitute peaceful protest.
According to reports, some-time around 03:00hrs yesterday, ‘arsonist(s)’ successfully managed to set ablaze, the One Mile Primary School.

Manickchand has reported that the burnt out primary school houses some 830 students.
There are reports that two persons have been arrested in connection with the blaze.
Manickchand in her immediate condemnation of the burning of the school, says that “every peace loving person and citizen who recognizes education as a necessary tool for poverty alleviation must condemn the burning of schools immediately…There can be no ifs and buts and conditions…This is wrong, will affect our innocent children, will create grave hardship for all involved, and must be unreservedly condemned.”

The newly installed Education Minister says that it will be challenging for the Ministry to place the more than 830 displaced children into schools that are already filled.

The new school year will begin on September 1.

She stressed too that “It will certainly be challenging on the pockets of their poor parents to find transportation and other money to send these now school-less children to other schools given that the one closest to their home has been burnt to the ground.”
The Minister lamented what she called an inevitable, additional strain “on the other schools which will now be forced to take in these children.”
She stressed that all the schools taking in will be accommodating far beyond their capacity and hence teachers will be tasked way beyond their limits.
Minister Manickchand says that Linden has the most trained teachers in Guyana with 93 per cent of the primary level being trained.

She says that even in light of this, “instead of the schools focusing on quality delivery they will now have to focus on mass and on counteracting the challenges posed by increased numbers.”
As such she says that much more than the said 830 ‘One Mile’ Primary kids “will suffer.”
She says too that schools are not built overnight, “so this is a most tragic circumstance that will prevail for as long as the children are forced to attend these other schools.”
Manickchand vowed to stand resolute “with our education officers, head teachers and teachers, parents and students throughout what will surely be a most difficult period.”

Manickchand in her appeal said that “We are failing at the Ministry to understand how to burn a school could be determined to be an effective way to protest reform for the payment of electricity rates.”
She joined in saying that the Education Ministry believes that the people of Linden are being used by the politicians “who do not so much care about Lindeners as they do about advancing their own wild and undemocratic agendas…To burn a school is to remove the most necessary tool of poverty alleviation…To have burnt One Mile Primary is to attempt to condemn all the children attending that school to a life of poverty.”

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/08/13/manickchand-scorches-one-mile-primary-arsonists/

Minister of Education Priya Manickchand has finally responded to critics, asserting that her Ministry’s ambitious programme to improve Mathematics and English at this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Examination has been heartening.  The Minister has revealed that while the performances in the two subject areas have declined Caribbean-wide, the 26 schools in which the Ministry had piloted the improvement project had in fact realised improved performances.

The project was introduced soon after the Minister assumed the post of Education Minister in December of last year. The ambitious move spanned a mere four months and saw Government injecting in excess of $87M to the Education Ministry to facilitate the project. “I saw a lot of criticism in the press but we (the Ministry) did not respond to any of them…” said the Minister who noted that even though it was such a short period a notable difference was observed.

Minister Manickchand had earlier this year insisted that her Ministry was on a mission to reap value for money at the 2012 CSEC examinations. She revealed even then that a review of current capital type investment suggested that “we are not seeing the corresponding rise in grades in the two particular subject areas of Maths and English.”  She asserted too that despite the fact that the Education Ministry is one of the largest Ministries in terms of resources, the results have not been proportionate to the investments made.

“The problem with that is very simple: if our children can’t matriculate with Maths and English then it means there are going to be a lot of doors closed to them…” the Minister had lamented.
It was against this very background that she saw it necessary to introduce the ambitious programme.   Among the schools that were included in the project were:  Abram Zuil, Anna Regina and Aurora (Region Two); West Demerara, Zeeburg, Patentia, Leonora, Stewartville (Region Three); Annandale, Covent Garden, Bladen Hall, Hope (Region Four); East Ruimveldt, Christ Church, North Georgetown, Central, Brickdam, North Ruimveldt, Richard Ishmael (Georgetown), Bushlot, Mahaicony, Bygeval, Woodley Park Primary Tops (Region Five); J. C. Chandisingh, Tagore Memorial, , New Amsterdam Multilateral, Berbice High, Skeldon Line Path  (Region Six); Three Miles (Region Seven), St. Ignatius (Region Nine), MacKenzie High, Christianburg and Silver City (Region 10).
Manickchand pointed out that while in the area of English there have been indications of acceptable results over the years, the subject area of Maths, over the past 10 years, reflected a mere 10 per cent increase in the pass rate from about 20 per cent to 30 per cent last year.

In introducing the programme last year, the Minister noted that “the fact remains that we are seeing some countries having 31 and 38 per cent, but all under 40 per cent, and this is no comfort to me because at the end of the day, what it means is that we have 70 per cent of our children not having some of the doors we have here opened to them.”
She questioned, “what is the point of developing Guyana or making our country move from a low income, heavily in-debted poor country, to a middle income developing country if the new opportunities arising in this country are going to be out of the reach of our next generation?”

According to the Minister, the rationale behind striving to improve the rate of performance in the subject areas was geared at ensuring that “our children can go on to universities, whether local or foreign, and be able to access certain jobs. If they don’t have Maths and English, then in a sense we are failing them and certainly we are failing our dear country…” The Minister alluded to the National Pledge, pointing to the fact that the whole theme of the pledge is that we will do what is good for Guyana.

“That is not to say that we think teachers have not been doing what is good, but somehow or the other the system has not been able to get those grades up and this for me is not only a matter of concern but almost a challenge or a red flag in front of a bull…We have the potential to make changes and we can combine the potential we have to see actual results for Maths and English if we could improve the grades of at least 1,500 of our children.”

Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/08/13/education-minister-heartened-with-results-of-math-english-pilot-programme/

It is refreshing to see ministerial initiative embedded in a results-oriented framework and targeted at enhancing service to the public.  There isn’t nearly enough of it and the truth is that ministerial impact has been overshadowed for the last 20 years by the command and control style of the PPP executive both in the Office of the President and Freedom House. 

Education Minister Ms Priya Manickchand is really at the starting point of what can be an enlightening and beneficial intervention to improve the performance of CSEC candidates in the critical subjects of Mathematics and English. Hard questions however still have to be asked and answered about this project.

Poor performance in these two subjects has been the bane of the Caribbean for many years and some territories have had alarming results. Jamaican Education Minister Mr Ronnie Thwaites on Thursday declared himself shocked at the island’s results in the exams. The pass rate for Jamaica in English A plummeted from 63.9 percent last year to 46% percent this year while the pass rate in Mathematics dipped from 33.2 percent last year to 31.7 percent.

At a press conference on Friday to announce the Guyana results, Ms Manickchand’s woes mirrored those of Mr Thwaites. The pass rate in English A declined precipitously from 60.8% last year to 37.02 percent this year. It appears that a syllabus revision which appeared in the English A exams for the first time this year had an impact on results across the region.  In Mathematics, Guyana’s pass rate declined from 30.4% to 29.69% – worse than Jamaica’s.

The only glimmer of hope in the Minister’s presentation was the result of a pilot project she initiated shortly after assuming office last year. Keenly aware that the results in these two subject areas were dismal, the Minister embarked on a project geared to produce improvements in the period between last December and May’s sitting. Thirty-six schools across the country were targeted and a series of measures implemented.

These included special training for Maths and English teachers via the Non-Graduate programme, workshops with subject specialists, strengthening the Maths programme at the Cyril Potter College of Education, and the institutionalisation of a remediation programme.

The Ministry also ensured that the students participating in the pilot obtained the requisite resources including texts, study guides and past CSEC papers, among other things.

Some of the schools identified to be in the pilot project included Abram Zuil – where the top CSEC performer hailed from – and Aurora, in Region 2; Stewartville, Leonora, and Zeeburg, in Region 3; Annandale, Covent Garden, and Bladen Hall, in Region 4;  East Ruimveldt, North Georgetown, Brickdam, and Richard Ishmael, in Georgetown; Bush Lot, Bygeval, and Woodley Park primary-top, in Region 5; Tagore, New Amsterdam Multilateral, and Skeldon Line Path, in Region 6; Three Miles in Region 7; St. Ignatius, in Region 9; and Mackenzie High, Silver City, and Christianburg, in Region 10.

So did these measures make a difference to the May results? The Minister was clearly elated by the output. Though the national average for passes in both English A and Mathematics had declined, the Minister reported that for the 36 schools in the pilot project, the pass rate in Mathematics was 39.85% and 52.05% in English A – both significantly above the national figure. The proximate impetus for the improved results would appear to be the interventions mapped out by the Minister and her officers.

Buoyed by the returns, the Minister is now charting an expansion of the project to other schools and she told the press conference that she plans an aggressive public awareness programme that will entail interfacing with the community and parents in the quest for better scores. She projected that if the results matched planning that in three to four years, the hand-wringing over the performance in these two core subjects could be over.

The results are heartening and invite an expansion while at the same time carefully evaluating and analyzing the overall effect of the project. Were  there any other factors in these schools that could have contributed to improved results? Did some of the 36 schools show meteoric improvements while some barely did better? Answers to these questions could help narrow down  the factors that led to a rapid improvement in the results.  More data would also be helpful. For instance, in relation to the 36 schools was there a knock-on effect on results in the other subject areas. Did the students who delivered the improved performance also do better in the other subjects having benefited from improved teaching and guides in Mathematics and English A which could have helped them to prepare better for other subjects. Could there have been a decline in their performance in other subjects as a result of the emphasis placed on Maths and English?

Similarly, were the overall results for the schools better or was there improvement only in these two subject areas? The concentration of resources and time in these two areas could have unwittingly taken away from effort in other areas.

Teachers from the pilot schools should also be interviewed in detail about the outcomes and their perspectives on what led to better results.

Are these special measures being implemented by Minister Manickchand applicable across the board and what will be the cost particularly in terms of scarce human resources? Would such an intervention be sustainable or in a couple of years results will slide again? If there is a positive follow through how can it be employed to produce better results not only in the range of subjects offered at CSEC but the quality of studentship and the employability of students on leaving school with only CSECs?  Further, what about commensurate recognition of the role of teachers and the need to value their efforts and tangibly recognize them. Will the ministry now set about trying to implement lessons from this project in the lower forms of secondary schools?

Minister Manickchand and her officers should be applauded for this pilot and the public will now await its expansion and the results of next year’s exams.

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2012/opinion/editorial/08/13/the-pilot-project-in-maths-and-english-a/

An alarming 67% of students failed Mathematics at the May/June Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations this year, triggering a region-wide call to address the situation.

The Caribbean Examina-tions Council (CXC) yesterday announced that only 33% of the entrants for the Mathematics examination achieved acceptable grades one to three—marking a continued decline over the last three years.

In 2010, 41% of candidates earned similar grades and last year thefigure was 35%.

As a result of the situation, CXC’s Subjects Awards Committee (SAC) reported that it was “deeply concerned” about the quality of work produced by the candidates at the CSEC level.

“Topics such as the range, perimeter, and profit and loss that should be covered at the lower secondary level were not fully understood,” the SAC said, in a report to the Final Awards Committee on the situation, quoted in a release by CXC yesterday. It also noted that on a question that tested perimeter and area, 36% of the candidates scored no marks, while on a question testing algebra, 33% of candidates also scored zero.

The SAC has called on the region to address teaching and performance in Mathematics by reorganizing its Mathema-tics programme, supporting teacher training and facilitating access to instructional resources.

According to CXC, Registrar Dr Didacus Jules said the council is establishing an expert working group to recommend comprehensive changes in teaching, learning and assessment of Mathema-tics. It is providing teacher training in more effective syllabus delivery and SBA management, strengthening mathematics content on its free interactive online portal (www.notesmaster.com), providing study guides in core subject areas in CSEC and CAPE, including Mathema-tics, and encouraging participating countries to use CCLSC Mathematics as a foundation programme for developing the competencies for mastery of the subject.

Decline
Meanwhile, CXC also said that for the third straight year the overall performance in the May/June examination has declined, with 62% achieving acceptable grades, compared with 66% in 2011 and 69% in 2010.

There were 35 subjects offered for the examination, which saw improved performances in nine of them, a decline in 19, and no movement in six. One new subject, Additional Mathematics, saw 58% of candidates achieving acceptable grades.

English A was among the subjects that saw a decline, with those achieving acceptable grades plummeting to 47% , down from 67% last year. This year was the first examination since the revised syllabus took effect and the SAC blamed the decline in performance on how students fared on the Essay Paper, especially in the summary and comprehension questions. “The SAC has suggested that the teaching of the language must enable students to move away from prescribed and rehearsed answers seen in some questions, to the point where they can effectively and appropriately use rhetorical devices that enrich expression and facilitate comprehension,” CXC said.

In English B, there was also a slight decline in performance when this year’s results were compared with those of last year. A revised syllabus was also introduced this year and the SAC found that candidates had trouble with the Poetry Profile and this affected the overall performance in the subject. Performance in the other two profiles, Drama and Prose Fiction.

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2012/news/guyana/08/11/67-failure-rate-in-maths-triggers-regional-call-for-action/