QC boys star at CSEC & CAPE

Aug 16, 2025 News

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By Allyiah Allicock

Kaieteur News – Two boys from Queen’s College are the country’s top performers in this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency (CAPE) examinations.

Jayden Adrian, who wrote 27 subjects, secured 21 Grade Ones and six Grade Twos. Adrian is among 280 candidates who secured Grade Ones in eight or more subjects.

The Ministry of Education announced that of the 280 candidates, 59 secured 12 Grade Ones or more.

For the CAPE examination, Arthur Roberts who wrote 13 subjects gained nine Grade Ones and four Grade Twos emerged the top performer.

The preliminary results of the country’s top performers were announced on Friday by the Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown.

“These children had a significantly reduced period of secondary education yet they have sparkled and done well,” minister Manickchand said while congratulating the students, their teachers and parents.

The minister announced that Guyana’s students improved in Mathematics and English A when compared to last year. She said the two subjects have been a challenge for the Caribbean region.

Specifically highlighting mathematics, the minister said that in 2024, there was a 36% pass rate in the Caribbean while this year the pass rate increased by 3 %. However, Guyana’s performance jumped by 5% with the pass rate in mathematics this year increasing to 32% from 27% in 2024.

The minister said that 6% of the region’s children secured Grade Ones, and in Guyana 5.7% of the children who wrote the examination got Grade Ones. “I am convinced that when the full story unfolds you will see that Guyana contributed to that 6% heavily, heavily in the children who got Grade Ones.”

The education minister said the improved performance is as a result of the Mathematics Intervention Programme, which was launched last year by her ministry. “This year, with the intervention programme and CXC told us they would have an intervention programme [and] it will begin in September 2026. Guyana said we will not wait, we are going to have our own intervention programme, and we began that last year.”

The intervention programme included every single child receiving a scientific calculator, geometry set, textbooks, past papers, lessons for free on the Guyana Learning channel, Quiz Me, and that monitors were placed in some 70 secondary schools across the country ensuring teachers were finishing the syllabus and that students were understanding what was being taught.

She stated also that they have seen increased performance in 67% of the schools across the country in mathematics.

“You don’t see this type of growth in one year, 5% in one year across the country where most of our schools did better, I tribute that doing better directly to the intervention we had,” the minster expressed.

Notably, the minister announced that this year several students from Grade 10 [4th Form] also wrote CSEC examinations and have excelled.

Minister Manickchand said that 235 children wrote at least one subject, 86 children wrote two subjects, 14 children wrote three subjects, three wrote four subjects, one child wrote five subjects, one wrote six, and one child wrote nine.

“Of those, 279 wrote mathematics, and of those 279 who wrote math, 271 passed with Grades One to Three so that is 97% pass rate in fourth form with 165 of them getting Grade One,” she announced.

Additionally, “111 wrote English and 111 children passed with Grades One to Three, that is 100% rate, 75 of those children got Grade Ones that is a 68% passed rate.” She noted that students also wrote other subjects.

Meanwhile, other top performers for CSEC are Mahesa Boodhoo of QC who wrote 20 subjects and secured 19 Grade Ones and one Grade Two; Odwin Bouyea of Fraser’s Educational Institute who wrote 21 subjects and secured 19 Grade Ones, one Grade Two and one Grade Three; Avish Ganesh of Anna Regina Secondary who wrote 21 subjects and attained 18 Grade Ones and three Grade Twos; Savannah Bovell of QC who wrote 21 subjects and secured 18 Grade Ones, and three Grade Twos; Najeeb Mohamed of Qayyim Academy who wrote 20 subjects and secured 17 Grade Ones and three Grade Twos; Maraya Cooke of QC who wrote 17 subjects and secured 16 Grade ones and one Grade Two; and Laurex Vandenburgh of Skeldon Line Path Secondary who wrote 18 subjects and attained 16 Grade Ones and two Grade Twos.

Meanwhile, among the top CAPE performers are Yunyi Zhou of Anna Regina Secondary, Sara Khan, David Sugrim, Abigail Stephens, Dasha Venture and Michael Henry all of Queen’s College.

Following the release of the results, President Irfaan Ali in a Facebook post extended congratulations to all the top performers and students who wrote the CSEC and CAPE examinations.

“I am proud of your dedication, hard work, and resilience. I encourage you to continue striving for excellence, for this is only the beginning of your journey. The knowledge, skills, and discipline you develop now will serve as the foundation for even greater achievements ahead,” the Head-of-State stated.

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• Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Arthur Roberts, CAPE, CSEC, Jayden Adrian, Priya Manickchand, Queens College

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