…But results show decrease in English grades

The results of the exams, however, show a mixed bag. While results indicated performance increases in passes in sixteen of the thirty-three subject areas, English showed a decrease by twenty-two percent and Mathematics increased by eleven point six percent. Chairman of the CXC National Committee, Alan Genitty says that this will give the Ministry a better idea of what needs to be done to improve the English results.

Alan Genitty, Chairman, CXC National Committee
“There was a slight decrease in English A and English B this year and we are—at this time since the results are just coming out—we are unsure of what the cause for that slight decrease is. We are trying to ascertain from CXC, to get information from CXC, to determine why there was a slight drop in English A and English B so we can do the necessary interventions here in the country.”

Patrick Faber, Minister of Education
“A matter of what we term to be success. Yes, there are, for instance, some school who were in the program today who had a large number of students who are doing well, but of course there are some who had no students receiving awards today. Fixing the problems in the education system are never an overnight fixture. While there are certain measures of course, we can ask our teachers to be hard workers with our students. A part of the problem is, of course, training for our teachers and it is no secret that this administration is saying to people that we are very serious about getting more training for teachers, we have offered more grants and financial assistants and scholarships to teachers more than ever. We want to seriously lift the calibre of education that our teachers deliver to our students. We are looking at a holistic approach as opposed to just doing a quick fix measure to raise the standard of education in this country.”