By Jomo Paul
[www.inewsguyana.com] – Over the years Guyanese students writing Caribbean Secondary Education (CSEC) examinations have not been able to raise the pass rate for English Language and Mathematics to over 50% and 2015 is no different.
Chief Education Officer Olato Sam on Thursday, August 13 released the results of the examinations which detailed the overall pass rate for each subject in Guyana.
He revealed that the English A and Mathematics both improved over last year’s performance. The English A pass rate is 49.36%, up from 46.98% in 2014. As it relates to Mathematics, Guyana attained a 45.07% pass rate, which is also an increase from 2014 and 2013 at 38% and 28.9% for the respective years.
“The overall performance in Chemistry, Physics, Visual Arts and Human and Social Biology was unsatisfactory,” said the Chief Education Officer adding that “excellent performances were recorded in Agriculture Science (Single and Double Awards).
In the Business arena, Principles of Business, Economics, Principles of Accounts and Office Administration managed to attract excellent and satisfactory performances.
Sam revealed that students of Information Technology and Electronic Document Preparation Management performed excellently. The top performing schools were Bishops High with 97.42% pass rates, Queens College with 94.57%, St Stanislaus College with 93.16%, St Joseph’s High with 92.78% and St Roses High School with 89.31%.
Education Minister Dr Rupert Roopnaraine stated that while the Ministry is encouraged by the results, it is in no way satisfied and intends to amplify efforts to attenuate failures.
“Although we are not satisfied with the current numbers, we are encouraged,” said Dr Rooparaine, who added that greater emphasis needs to be placed on the sciences.
“This year some of the sciences have slipped – we hope this is a one off phenomenon,” said the Education Minister. He also announced the introductions of the Desiree Fox Award and the Hinterland Top Performer Award.
