Garcia: Ministry to address math grades

He said there has been a “slight decline” in the number of Form Five students passing CSE C math — from 61 percent last year to 54 percent this year.

However, conversely, the pass rate for English language (“English A”) has improved from 64 percent last year to 72 percent this year, he added.

Garcia said 67 percent of all subject entries resulted in a pass mark of grades one to three.

Some 58 percent of students obtain a “full certificate” of five CSE C passes, while within this figure those students whose five subjects included English language and math is 53 percent.

He suggested that weakness in some students’ performance at the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SE A) Exam could have led to deficiencies at the CSE C Exam for English language and math. However, he added that most CSE C subjects have “pass rates that made us proud” as he pointed to physical education (94 percent pass rate), religious education (86 percent) and home economics (85 percent).

Garcia, a former school principal and former TTUTA chairman, said the results suggest that for English language some students have difficulties in reading and in appreciating poetry, while for math some students hav e difficulty understanding concepts.

He revealed that of the 23,723 subject entries for students writing “Unit One” of CAPE in Form Lower Six, some 94 percent passed. He added that a similar pass rate of 94 percent was also achieved by Upper Sixth students writing “Unit Two” in CAPE, but he revealed that the total number of subject entries was only 10,796.

Garcia said Cabinet had decided to award 400 scholarships this year at post-CAPE level, and the ministry is now awaiting the merit list from the CXC.