‘Marginal decline’ in CSEC/CAPE pass rate Loop Barbados

Black Immigrant Daily News

Education officials have reported a “marginal decline” in the overall pass rate at this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE).

Deputy Chief Education Officer and Local Registrar, Dr Roderick Rudder, while speaking this afternoon during a press conference at the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training headquarters, explained that the overall performances have been “satisfactory” but it was lower than the previous two years.

Dr Rudder disclosed that the Ministry has recognised a trend of CSEC candidates receiving Grade 3’s.

“We are continuing to see evidence that there is a need for some greater emphasis on addressing particularly the number of candidates who received Grade 3. We are seeing quite a high number of candidates receiving Grade 3 knowing that Grades 1 to 3 are the acceptable grades in Barbados, and therefore, the Ministry of Education will continue to work with our schools to ensure that our students can improve in their performances as it pertains to the quality of the grades that they get,” Dr Rudder stated.

The deputy chief education officer shared that the Ministry was in the process of analysing student performance from 2020. He also noted an improvement in some subjects while others reported marginal declines.

“The preliminary results are showing that this year’s results across the region are marginally lower than last year 2021, and lower than the results in 2020.

Of the three years – 2020, 2021, and 2022 – 2020 seems to be an interesting year given that the performances seem to be higher of the three years. It was in 2020 that the examination assessment was based on two components of the three components that would be the SBA [School Based Assessment] and Paper 1 – There were no Paper 2 done in 2020,” he added.

Dr Rudder also revealed that the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) was working with Ministries of Education and schools across the region to address discrepancies in the exams.

“The Caribbean Examinations Council is continuing the process of engaging with ministries of education and schools to address some minor discrepancies that may have resulted at the time of the release of the results. For example, instances, where candidates might have had some ungraded results or there, may be instances where candidates for some reason or other have been recorded as absent due to illness.”

He advised persons who wished to query their results to submit a request to the Caribbean Examination Council by October 7 for review. This also applies to persons who were graded Absent or Ungraded.

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