Education officials encouraged by P.S.E. results
Last night we introduced the top scorers in the Primary School Examination, but tonight it’s time to take a closer look at the statistics. The Ministry of Education reports that compared to 2006, there was an almost seven and a half point improvement in English scores with this year’s national average coming in at sixty point one percent. In Science, students averaged fifty-eight point nine percent, an increase of just under five points over last year. The national percentile average in Social Studies also saw a minor upturn of one point three points, reaching fifty-nine point four. Math however, continued its less than stellar run, showing a statistically insignificant tenth of a point rise over 2006, resting at an anaemic forty-five point eight percent.
When it came to a comparison between districts, Orange Walk students did the best overall obtaining the highest averages in all subject areas. Stann Creek’s mean was the lowest in English at fifty-eight point eight and also in Science with fifty-six point six. Toledo, with forty-two point four percent and fifty-five point nine percent respectively for Math and Social Studies, reported the lowest scores for those subjects. Today Chief Education Officer Maude Hyde told News Five that they are pleased with the general improvement and optimistic about the future.
Maud Hyde, Chief Education Officer
“We’re happy to see that the scores have improved this year, particularly in English. You will see a marked difference from last year’s results, practically about eight points or so above last year’s results. So that’s good, it’s definitely an indication of more work being put into preparing the students and of course the students working a little bit harder, so that is good.”
Kendra Griffith
“And with math, it didn’t rise any at all. What do you all think is the problem in that subject area?”
Maud Hyde
“Math has been a problem for a long time and it’s evident, you look at the primary results, you look at the higher levels in the secondary system, the CXC results and it’s evident that it’s a country problem and usually that is reflected when we need to give your teaching force a little more practice and work in that particular area.”
“You won’t see the results right away in education. Often times it takes a little while before you can really see where the improvement happens and we have certainly made quite a number of interventions. We’ve done specific training; the examination unit has worked closely with the teachers to actually go through the details of the examination, so I think they have a better understanding. We have done training workshops, particularly in Math, to help them to be able to see some of the difficulties they have with interpreting the problem solving paper. So we anticipate that over a few years we will see some improvement.”
Later this month a ceremony will be held to recognise the achievements of those students who did well in the P.S.E.
