60 percent pass CXC

The performances for 2005 in the CXC, CAPE and Cambridge GCE A’ Levels examinations were published by the Ministry of Education in a four-page pullout carried in yesterday’s Newsday. The examinations were written in May and June 2005.

Thirty-six subjects were written at the CXC level, for which 154,146 were registered to write. The actual number of students who wrote the exams was 139,573, of which 84,146 passed. That means 60.29 percent passed. There was a 100 percent pass rate in only one subject — Religious Education.

A further analysis revealed that students did better in skills-based subjects like Food and Nutrition (79.44 percent), Clothing and Textiles (76.74), Physical Education and Sports (76.77) which was written for the first time this year, and Office Procedures (77.45), compared to the traditional academic subjects. Those included Maths (45.87), English A (60.91), Principles of Accounts and Business (64.69 and 67.88 respectively) and Caribbean History (55.77). In languages, more students were successful in French (78.11) than Spanish (55.66), which has been declared as this country’s first foreign language. In the science subjects, performance was just above 50 percent — Biology (64.82), Physics (61.61) and Chemistry (61.37). There was a 74.81 percent pass rate in Integrated Science. In six subjects, the pass rate was below 50 percent. This included Math (45.87), Mechanical Engineering (T) (47.30), Electrical and Electronic Technician (T) (45.56),Visual Arts (42.17), Human and Social Biology (37.66) and Building Tech-Woods (T) (33.60).

Looking at the pass rate for English A and Mathematics over the last six years, there has been a steady decrease over the last two years, with a mere point six percent increase this year. In 2000 the pass rate for English was 60.4 percent. It increased to 67.7 percent in 2001, dropped to 64.4 percent in 2002, dropped further to 55.3 percent in 2003, increased to 60.3 percent last year and this year there was a 60.9 percent pass rate. In Mathematics, there was a 46.0 percent pass rate in 2000. It dropped to 44.0 percent in 2001, increased to 51.1 percent in 2002, dropped to 50.3 percent in 2003, dropped to 46.3 percent in 2004 and decreased to 45.9 percent this year.

In the Unit Two, Upper Sixth form CAPE exams, there was a 91.04 percent pass rate. Of the 1,775 students registered to write the exams in 16 subject areas, 1,651 actually wrote the exams and 1,503 passed. There were 100 percent pass rates in Food and Nutrition, Environmental Science and French. The lowest pass rate was 79.31 percent in Computer Sciences.

In Cambridge A’ Levels, 67.4 percent of the 5,792 students who wrote the exams passed with full certificates. A full certificate means passing two and more subjects and General Paper. (GP) The number of students attempting two and more subjects plus GP was 4,284, of which 2,890 passed. A sample of the percentage in the subject areas gaining Grades A to E, revealed that there was an increase in Math (45.22) compared to last year (41.99), but the pass rate in the subject was the lowest (45.22) among the 20 subject areas in which the exam was written. There was a slight decrease in GP this year (86.00) to last year (87.51), but the pass rate this year was 86 percent. The subjects which showed pass rates below 50 percent were Geometrical and Mechanical Drawing (47.14) and Law (46.15).

In congratulating students on their successes in this year’s exams, The Education Ministry stated that its aim was to ensure that 80 percent of students graduate with a full certificate by 2010.