‘National education crisis in Region Nine’ …AFC highlights over 90% failure rate at 2024 CSEC, calls for urgent interventions   

Sep 23, 2024 News

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Kaieteur News- As stakeholders continue to analyse Guyana’s performance at this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations, the Alliance For Change has said that the mere 5.66% pass rate by students in Region Nine is a national crisis. As such, he has called for an urgent study to be conducted into the performance with a view of identifying the problems and implementing workable solutions.

Back in August when the Ministry of Education reported on the performance at this year’s CSEC, Chief Education Officer, Saddam Hussain noted that in 2024, a total of 11,612 students entered for CSEC, a slight decrease from 12,108 in 2023. The CEO stated that the overall pass rate for grades 1-3 declined from 67.34% in 2023 to 67.23% in 2024. Specifically, he highlighted declines in English A, where pass rates fell from 72% in 2023 to 69% in 2024 – a 3% drop. In contrast, English B pass rates improved from 64% in 2023 to 70% in 2024.

Speaking at the party’s news conference last Friday, AFC Leader, Nigel Hughes said the results for CSEC for Region Nine indicate an average of 5.66% pass rate for the region. “I’ll just briefly give you these figures and I am sure the ministry can challenge them if they with but they are the ministry’s figures. St. Ignatius Secondary at CSEC 8%, Annai Secondary 7%, Sand Creek Secondary 6%, Aishalton Secondary 8%, Karasabi Secondary 2% and Katoka Secondary 3%.” Hughes told the news conference.

He explained that this was an indication that 94% of the students who would have attended the schools mentioned for the last five years would have failed their exams in 2024 and this is a crisis. “What these results mean is that all those students who…I am not sure they graduated who leave secondary school in Region Nine after having spent five years will have absolutely no certification. Now this is a national crisis, it’s not a political crisis, it’s a national crisis because we cannot have any part of this country be subject to a fail rate of 90%, after secondary school, after spending five years.”

The AFC leader further stated that the ‘crisis’ is compounded by the fact that there are no vocational plans in place to offer training for the 95% of student who are now finished with their secondary education but still unqualified. “Now the figures that we have I believe are the ministry’s figures and given that this crisis is so severe in Region Nine, we would like to request and demand that the Minister of Education and the Ministry of Education releases all the CSEC results for all the regions in the country because we possibly cannot have an average pass rate of 5.66% or 6% in a secondary school.”

Complete failure

Hughes lamented that this therefore meant that for the five years spent in the education system, “there have been a complete failure of the delivery of quality education and this brings me to another discussion the difference between output and outcome. Every day, we are regaled in the newspaper and various media that the government is spending more and more money on the construction of school buildings that’s an output.”

Furthermore, “The outcome in Region Nine, that we have proof of is that whatever they may have constructed the delivery of education and the outcome which is 5.6% pass rate is clearly completely disproportionate to and has no relation to the amount of money that was spent on buildings. Region Nine is an Indigenous area and therefore it is a matter of crisis that further compounds the way the Indigenous people have been treated by the state.”  Looking back two years ago the pass rate for the region was 14% in 2022 for Region Nine and 19% in 2023. Hughes confidently stated that, “There must be some reason for that drastic decline to 5.66 and if this is not a national crisis then I am not sure what would be.”

He said that there is need for an in-depth analysis of the reason “why we have failed the students in Region Nine after five years or during the five years.” He explained that such an analysis can be done in six weeks.

Caribbean-wide decline 

The Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) had also announced that there was a regional decline of the overall pass rate for both the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) and the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC). Dr. Nicole Manning, Director of Operations, Examination Services Division at CXC during the announcement of the results said that the overall regional performance for CAPE was 92.19 %, which she describes as a “slight reduction” from previous year, 2023. For CSEC, there was an overall performance of 69%, slightly consistent to 2023.

The CAPE grades from one to five are considered acceptable by CXC. Some preliminary results presented, showed a decrease in acceptable grades in six main subjects. Notably, Biology units one and two saw a drop, with unit one decreasing from 88% in 2023 to 84% this year. Caribbean Studies and Literatures in English both experienced reductions from 97% in 2023 to 95% in 2024. Physics unit one fell by 1%, from 98% in 2023 to 97% in 2024. Pure Mathematics unit one saw a significant decrease from 93% in 2023 to 86% in 2024.

For CSEC, grades one to three are deemed acceptable. Preliminary results revealed a significant decline in seven subjects. Chemistry saw a 3% decrease, from 67% in 2023 to 64% in 2024. English A dropped by 2%, from 78% to 76%, while French decreased by 1%. Information Technology fell from 86% in 2023 to 81% in 2024. Integrated Science experienced a decline from 67% to 58%. Mathematics saw a significant drop from 43% in 2023 to 36%, with most candidates achieving grade three. Principles of Accounts fell from 72% in 2023 to 67% in 2024.

Manning highlighted several factors contributing to this year’s academic decline. These include an increase in the number of CAPE subject entries and candidates—26,436 in total—while CSEC saw a reduction in subject entries but an increase in candidate entries to 116,232. There was also a rise in absenteeism, with a 5% increase for CAPE and a 7% increase for CSEC. Additionally, there were more reported irregularities and hardships during the exams.

Dr. Wesley Registrar and CEO of CXC in his remarks stated that this year the performance in mathematics is a bit lower than last year. “When we did further analysis, we recognised that when we made the restriction of five subjects including mathematics and English that [mathematics and English) dropped to 4.9%, what that tells us is that from 2018 to now, every year we have been losing almost 11,500 students on average who will not fully matriculate into university because they need math and English… if you don’t have math and English employers will pay you less,” he said. Wesley highlighted that the ongoing decline in math and English performance could negatively impact the Caribbean’s economic competitiveness by reducing the number of students capable of driving innovation and critical thinking. “You have less students being able to drive the innovation that is required for the economy to advance and for critical thinking and problem solving and for attitudes to be developed. We are in a very challenging time that we need to give greater attention to mathematics and English,” Wesley stated.

To address these challenges, CXC is working on initiatives to improve teaching and learning in Mathematics and English. Wesley mentioned that a team has been commissioned to develop standards for literacy and numeracy, incorporating Artificial Intelligence to enhance educational outcomes.

 

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• Caribbean, CSEC, Katoka Secondary 3%., Nigel Hughes, Region Nine

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