Education officials: P.S.E. scores can be better

The results are in but educational officials have had to admit that while there were some improvement in grades, overall performance in the primary school examination can be much better. News Five’s Kendra Griffith was on hand today as administrators shared the good … and bad news.

Maud Hyde, Chief Education Officer
?We have adopted a slightly different format by way of releasing the information this year. The decision to do so was particularly to give us an opportunity to allow the students to first view their grades. It is standard practice in examination boards that candidates get the first look, if we want to put it that way and then it is public knowledge, so it is largely an attempt to streamline our own operation and to ensure that the candidates first have privilege to their information.?

In releasing the details of the results, today the Ministry of Education confirmed the rumours circulating since Tuesday.

Alan Genitty, Deputy Chief Education Officer
?Tina Shen of Belize Elementary School in Belize City received the highest overall score with an aggregate score of three hundred and seventy-nine points out of a total of four hundred points. The second highest overall score was obtained by Mischa-von-derek Aikman of Grace Primary School, with a total of three hundred and seventy-two points. Third highest overall score of three hundred and seventy-one was obtained by Donovan Holder of Hummingbird Elementary School in Belize City.?

Today we found those students celebrating their grades.

Tina Shen, Achieve Highest Score,P.S.E.
?I feel excited because I work hard.?

Kendra Griffith
?What were your preparations??

Tina Shen
?Well I review everything that my teacher had thought me and I read over all the notes I got.?

Mischa-von-derek Aikman, 2nd Highest Score, P.S.E.
?Well I feel honoured to get this position, but at the same humble because there are many other bright students throughout Belize. It could have easily been them standing here, so I just want to congratulate them and all the students who sat the exam, especially Miss Tina who came in first.?

Donovan Holder, 3rd Highest Score, P.S.E.
?Good because I studied really hard for it.?

Kendra Griffith
?How did you find the test??

Donovan Holder
?Pieces of it were easy. The English and Science I found challenging. The Math, they gave you formulas for it, so I didn?t find it all that hard.?

A total of twenty-six students will be rewarded for their excellence, but officials say the national statistics leave much to be desired.

Alan Genitty
?National Mean Performance in English, fifty-two point seven percent showed some decline in performance compared to last year?s mean performance of fifty-five point three percent. National mean performance of forty-five point seven percent in mathematics has shown some improvement, however, compared to last year?s mean performance of forty-two point four percent. National mean performance of fifty-four point three percent in science also showed some improvement over last year?s performance of fifty-two point eight. National mean performance of fifty-eight point one percent in social studies in below last year?s mean performance of sixty point four percent.?

Yvonne Davis, Programme Coordinator, Local Examinations
?This year is not necessarily satisfactory according to our standards. We are hoping that we could improve performance to at least sixty percent and then we could be looking at satisfactory performance. But we are still more or less at the adequate level where we are just over the fifty percent mark in most areas and we have been trying to maintain that.?

Maude Hyde
?Often times the question is asked, what is the ministry of education going to do, or what is our plan and we leave out of the equation the importance of the managing authorities. Many of our schools are denominational schools with their own managing authority and boards and it means that all of us need to look at ways in which we can assist our schools. We need to look at the supervision in our schools; we need to look at the role of the principal in our school by way of encouraging good practice and adopting methods that will work. So the ministry has its role, yes, but we need to come in as a community now and address a problem that is evident among our children.?

The Ministry of Education maintains that everything will be done to try and improve the results of Primary School Examination. Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.

We will have a look at the facts behind the statistics in Friday’s newscast. According to the Ministry of Education, Tina Shen and Donovan Holder also received perfect scores in Math. Other top performers include Christen Marin of Belize Elementary who placed fourth; Geraldine Sosa of St. Joseph’s Primary was fifth, followed by Vanessa Ayala of St. Ignatius in sixth place. Alexandria Hertular of Grace Primary ranked seventh with a perfect score in math and the highest overall grade in English. Amy Chang of Belize Elementary gained the eighth highest score, followed by Yusef Flowers of Grace Primary. at ninth. Tenth place is a tie between Eva Moss of Hummingbird and Wicky Chen of Sacred Heart School, who both received the top grade of ninety-six percent for Science.