Math scores highest pass rate in five years

Jun 26, 2025 News

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…as NGSA results show significant improvement

 

 

By Shania Williams

Kaieteur News – This year’s National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) has recorded a significant improvement across all four core subject areas, with Mathematics seeing the best performance in the last four years.

This is according to the Director of Operations at the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), Dr. Nicole Manning, who presented the performance of each subject at the announcement of the NGSA held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre on Wednesday. Dr. Manning noted that the 2025 results have surpassed the overall performances recorded over the past four years, from 2021 to 2024.

During her presentation, Dr. Manning shared detailed statistics on the 2025 NGSA results. She reported that a total of 18,000 students registered for the assessment, with 3,450 candidates coming from Region Four. She also highlighted that the registration reflected a balanced gender distribution. “When we have the highest registration of candidates, we see both more males and females. The norm is that there’s general equity across the two groups of students,” she stated.

Mathematics, long regarded as one of the most challenging subjects nationally, recorded a dramatic improvement in this year’s NGSA results. A total of 55.51% of students scored 50% or above, marking the highest pass rate in the last five years. In comparison, the subject recorded pass rates of 36.50% in 2021, 34.72% in 2022, 39.87% in 2023, and 40.36% in 2024. The significant improvement prompted a standing ovation at the conference centre.

“We are happy also, because this means that we are seeing a shift in the generation, and that therefore means we’re looking for that improvement at the other level, the Caribbean Secondary Examination,” Dr. Manning said. Adding to this achievement, a remarkable 472 students received full marks in Mathematics, the highest number in five years. This represents a substantial increase compared to previous years: 1 student achieved full marks in 2021, 38 in 2022, 117 in 2023, and 108 in 2024.

Meanwhile, there was also a notable decline in the number of students scoring zero in the subject. Only 6 students received zero marks this year, compared to 10 in 2021, 12 in 2022, 8 in 2023, and 7 in 2024, making it the lowest number of zero scores in the five-year period. Additionally, both male and female candidates demonstrated average performances above the 40% mark, indicating overall progress across genders.

In English, the overall performance of students has significantly improved in 2025, with 69.25% of candidates scoring 50% or above, marking the highest percentage over the past five years. By comparison, the pass rates in previous years were 65.71% in 2021, 64.75% in 2022, 60.47% in 2023, and 66.79% in 2024. “We thought last year was very good, but this year was even better, the best we’ve had in five years,” Dr. Manning noted.

Additionally, 93 students achieved perfect scores in English this year, showing an increase compared to the 72 students who did so in 2024. In contrast, only 61 students achieved full marks in 2023, 13 in 2022, and 142 in 2021.

Although there has been an overall reduction in the number of students scoring zero in the subject over the five-year span, this year saw a slight increase with 9 students receiving zero scores, compared to 7 in 2024. Prior years recorded higher numbers: 10 in 2023, 18 in 2022, and 17 in 2021.

In terms of gender performance, the mean percentage score for females was 65.98%, while males averaged 57.22%. Both figures represent an improvement over previous years and are the highest recorded in the last five years for each gender.

Social Studies performance at the 2025 NGSA saw a notable improvement, with 64.77% of students scoring 50% and above, the highest pass rate in the past five years. This marks a steady rise from previous years: 56.30% in 2021, 58.9% in 2022, 58.57% in 2023, and 62.63% in 2024.

In terms of full marks, 55 students achieved perfect scores in Social Studies this year, also the highest number in five years. Comparatively, 52 students achieved this in 2024, 17 in 2023, 3 in 2022, and 27 in 2021.

 

 

There was also a significant drop in the number of students scoring zero in the subject, with only 4 recorded this year, the lowest in five years. By contrast, there were 6 zero scores in both 2021 and 2024, 14 in 2022, and 9 in 2023.

Regarding gender performance, while female students continued to show consistent results, there was a noticeable improvement in the performance of male students in Social Studies this year.

Science also demonstrated a strong upward trend, with 63.70% of students scoring 50% and above, an overall improvement from previous years. Dr Manning acknowledged the progress, stating, “Last year we had a dip, so it means that not only did we do better than last year, it really moved past what we ever had over the five years.”

In comparison, the percentage of students passing Science in previous years stood at 40.12% in 2021, 46.45% in 2022, 55.11% in 2023, and 54.00% in 2024.

Additionally, an impressive 228 students achieved full marks in Science in 2025, the highest number in five years. This represents a significant increase from 30 in 2024, 69 in 2023, 5 in 2022, and just 1 in 2021. There was also a substantial reduction in zero scores in the subject, with only 4 students scoring zero, the lowest across the five-year span. In previous years, zero scores were higher: 9 in 2021, 11 in 2022, 7 in 2023, and 13 in 2024. In terms of gender performance, both boys and girls showed improvement. This year, 62.15% of females passed Science, while 55.90% of males did the same. Dr. Manning noted, “We dipped last year so that’s also very significant for both males and females. It is important to note that boys are coming out of the 40% zone; not only are they performing better, but they have left that 40% zone completely.”

Meanwhile, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand confirmed that 2025 marks Guyana’s best NGSA performance since 2015. The overall pass rate rose dramatically from 49% in 2024 to 63% in 2025. “Guyana has done the best it has ever done and by far…We have moved the overall pass rate from 49% to 63% of our children in this country passing all the subjects. You know what that means, our children are doing better,” she remarked. Minister Manickchand attributed the improvements to several interventions such as enhanced teacher training, school feeding programs, quizzes, radio and TV educational programming, increased school monitoring, the National Grade Five Assessment, the distribution of textbooks, and school upgrade initiatives.

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• Caribbean Examinations Council, mathematics, NGSA results, Past rate

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