While many islands across the region have raised concerns about the CXC and CAPE preliminary results released last Tuesday, with some calling for an urgent investigation, the Ministry of Education on St Kitts says it’s pleased with the results.
Minister of Education Hon. Jonel Powell during a Ministry of Education press conference on Monday morning, acknowledged that there are specific cases of concern regarding some results, however he said that the ministry will allow the query process to work.
Minister Powell noted that the CXC results received for St. Kitts and Nevis indicate improved performance in both CSEC and CAPE.
The education minister revealed that for CSEC the federation recorded a national pass rate of 84.03%.
Minister Powell stated that St. Kitts and Nevis entered some 1762 candidates to write the CSEC Examinations in 32 subject areas this year realizing 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.
Minister Powell also mentioned an improved pass rate at the CSEC level for Mathematics and English A.
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 realized 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.
The Federation also saw an improvement in the pass rate at the CAPE level of 90.48 %. The Education Minister revealed that 470 candidates were entered to write the CAPE Examinations this year in 27 subject areas across five CAPE centres namely the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (CFBC), the CFBC Adult and Continuing Education, Her Majesty’s Prison, Nevis Sixth Form and Nevis Private, realizing a slight decrease in 26 candidates over 2019.
A total of 47 CAPE Units was attempted, 24 Unit ones and 23 Unit two’s along with the general education courses, namely Communication Studies, Caribbean Studies and Integrated Mathematics, said Minister Powell.
In St. Kitts, 341 candidates wrote exams from a fleet of 25 subjects, while 58 were private candidates, 283 were college candidates. Nevis recorded 129 candidates writing CAPE examinations in 27 areas. 122 candidates were registered at the Nevis Sixth Form College while seven were entered as private candidates.
Minister Powell stated that preliminary statistics from CXC confirm that 1607 subject entries were sat from the registered amount of 1744 by CAPE candidates in St. Kitts and Nevis this year.
“This reflects a decrease in both registered candidates and subject entries from 2019,” said Minister Powell. “Of the 1607 subject entries 1503 were sat by college registrants with 492 from Nevis Sixth Form and 1101 from the CFBC.”
He said that 98 private candidates in St. Kitts and six in Nevis brought total subject entries for this group to 104.
Of the 47 CAPE Units written 20 Unit returned acceptable grades with grades for five Units still outstanding including French, Spanish, Units one and two and Pure Mathematics Unit one for some students, said the minister.
The Education Minister stated that acceptable grades returned for subjects via the five centres are that Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College returned 919 out of 1011 subject entries, CFBC Adult and Continuing Education Division obtained 61 of 67 entries; Her Majesty’s Prison amassed 28 out of 31; Nevis Sixth Form obtained 441 out of 492 entries; and Nevis Private returned five acceptable grades from six entries sat.
On Friday the Caribbean Examinations Council hosted a virtual press conference in efforts to address concerns related to the exam results.
Registrar of the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) Dr. Wayne Wesley indicated that the performance this year across the board remained the same compared with the previous three years’ results.
During the conference, Dr. Wesley said that while a general re-grading of the results will not take place, schools, centers, Education Ministries, and students can submit requests for queries or a review by October 23. After that, the official CAPE and CSEC results will be released on November 6.
Students have the option to request a review or query with CXC, but a fee of US$30 is attached to requests for reviews and CXC said this fee will not be waived. However, candidates who have questions about an absent or ungraded result may submit a query at no cost.