Guyana records higher than average results for CSEC, CAPE 2021 examinations

Oct 15, 2021 News

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Kaieteur News – Guyanese candidates have attained overall higher than average results when compared to the performance of their regional counterparts at the 2021 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) examinations.
Director of Operations at the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), Dr. Nicole Manning, noted students across the Caribbean performed creditably in the CSEC and CAPE examinations this year, though faced with several challenges.

Dr. Manning was at the time addressing a gathering assembled at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) at Liliendaal, Georgetown, where Guyana hosted CXC officials for the opening ceremony for the 2021 results.
The ceremony was well attended by several high ranking Ministry of Education (MoE) officials, plus secondary school students and teachers. The event was also broadcast live across CXC channels and social media platforms to several other Caribbean territories.
During her presentation, Dr. Manning gave an overview of the results for both CSEC and CAPE candidates across the region. Her remarks came ahead of the release of regional results for CSEC and CAPE examinations, which are slated for today; candidates are expected to have access to their results online from this evening.
Speaking of the overall participation and performance of candidates, Dr. Manning noted that while there was an overall decline in the number of candidates sitting the exams across the Region, Guyana did exceptionally well in light of these circumstances and hardships facing students throughout the Caribbean, as a result of the COVID -19 pandemic.
She disclosed that for the first time ever this year, CXC hosted two exam sittings to accommodate students writing CAPE and CSEC.
According to Dr. Manning, the exams took place between June and August this year, to accommodate students facing hardships, as a result of the impact of COVID-19, and those candidates from St Vincent and the Grenadines which was ravished by a volcanic eruption earlier this year. “We saw a reduction… and this would have been our lowest cohort for the last four years,” she said.

She added that: “We saw where we had a reduction in candidate entries to 27,750 and for subject entries 110,020… Another significant note was our absentees. It was also the highest we had in four years, 8.83 per cent.”
Meanwhile, as it relates to Guyana, Dr. Manning said about 75 percent of the Guyanese candidates who were registered had received acceptable grades compared to the region’s 68 percent. She explained that for CSEC, acceptable passes from Grades One to Three and for the CAPE Grades One to Five are considered acceptable.
Dr. Manning disclosed too that, much like the performance for CSEC, 88 percent of the CAPE candidates from Guyana obtained acceptable Grades One to Five passes, as opposed to the Caribbean’s 87 percent pass rate.
Additionally, she said that the 33 subjects offered by CXC at the CSEC level, Guyanese candidates would have topped 20 subjects.
The CXC Director of Operations asserted that: “This means that Guyana recorded higher pass rates than the regional average at both the CSEC and CAPE levels.”
She noted, too, that for key subject areas, such as Mathematics at the 2021 sitting of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations, there was an overall improvement. However, she pointed to a decline in the country’s overall performance for English A and B subjects at the CSEC level.
Meanwhile, in his remarks, CXC’s Registrar and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr. Wayne Wesley, said the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of the examiner (CXC) to revamp its structure.
“What we have all learnt from COVID-19 is the awakening of the collective consciousness at the governance, leadership, operational and functional levels of the inadequacies of our normative systems, and the awareness of the need to collectively re-imagine and rethink the development of a more inclusive and resilient socio-economic system of development,” he said.
“It is within this resilient environment that the critical function of developing the human capital through teaching, learning and assessment will continue.”

As it relates to the current results to be released this evening, Dr. Wesley warned that these are not final results, but preliminary ones “which means that CXC will continue to engage schools and ministries on getting the input, such as outstanding School-Based Assessment (SBA) grades, so that these grades can be finalised.”
Dr. Wesley noted, too, that given the major discrepancies raised after last year’s results, CXC made the decision to engage these stakeholders before the release of the results to the candidates.
With regards to any queries about the results, Dr. Wesley said that students will have until November 15 to raise their concerns. “We hope that it is at a minimum and we are not expecting that, really,” he said.

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