Education Minister lauds TT’s CXC results

Addressing the Caribbean Examination Council’s (CXC) ceremonial opening on the occasion of its 30th anniversary, Education Minister Hazel Manning stated, “TT has contributed significantly to the work of CXC, and in turn, we have reaped outstanding awards.”

Speaking at the celebration Thursday night at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Manning expressed pride at the international achievements of some students. “This could only have happened because of the foundation they received from an education system that evolved and impacted on the curriculum and examination for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC),” she claimed. She revealed that TT provided approximately 28 percent of the regional candidate population for CSEC, second only to Jamaica in the wide range of subjects offered by CXC. She also stressed that the highest number of students were presented by TT in the Sciences — Biology, Chemistry, Integrated Science and Physics, as well as in the languages — Spanish and French.

Stating that the results in CSEC have been encouraging, Manning said statistics in Mathematics at the general proficiency level in 2003 indicated that 62 percent of the candidates of TT achieved grades I-III. In English, 52 percent achieved grades I, II and III, whilst 60 percent and 77 percent achieved these grades in Physics and Spanish respectively. Acknowledging that a lot more work had already been done, but that there was still a lot more to do, the minister expressed pleasure that CXC also concentrated on technical and vocational subjects, which are areas of increasing performance.

In addition, 48 persons currently serve this country as panel members (21 for CSEC and 27 for CAPE). Commending the top students for their accomplishments, she said the government was trying to bridge the gap on their way to modernise the education system by attempting to keep abreast of the technological changes. She also stated that the ministry was in the middle of a reformation programme incorporating decentralisation, school based management, teacher professional development, curricular reform, compulsory pre-service and in-service training, and modernisation of the teacher education colleges.