Improved performances at CSEC this year; results to be available today

The results of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) will be released today, September 22, 2020. The results will be accessible online simultaneously by the Ministry of Education and the students.

This announcement was made during a live press conference streamed online by CXC at its Headquarters in Barbados on Tuesday, however, a timeline was not given for when the results will be made available today.

The exams were written in July and August this year; a new structure was implemented for the exams where only Paper One and School-Based Assessment (SBAs) were used to grade students. Paper One was done via the E-testing modality for schools that had internet access and technology.

Guyana objected to this format as the majority of communities, especially those in the hinterland, do not have access to the internet and as such did the exams via the paper modality.

Meanwhile, a 3.8% increase in the pass rate for CSEC was recorded this year. A total of 382, 783 candidates received acceptable results between grades one to three. As it relates to CAPE, there was a slight reduction because of the number of persons who were absent for exams. Nevertheless, 98% of candidates attained acceptable pass in grades 1 to 5 for CAPE, when compared to 97% in 2019.

For CSEC, there were also improved overall pass rate several subject areas. Chemistry recorded a 62% pass rate when compared to 60% in 2019. For Biology this year, 79% of candidates recorded passes when compared to 73% in 2019.

There were also improvements for Physics with a 75% pass rate as compared to 73% in 2019. Integrated Science also saw a 63% pass rate as compared to 62% in 2019. There was also a marked improvement in Mathematics where 52% of candidates gained passes as compared to 46% in 2019.

English A also recorded an 82% pass rate as compared to 79% in 2019. Social studies improved by 70% when compared to 65% in 2019 and finally, Information technology recorded a 90% pass rate when compared to 92% in 2019.