CXC releases 2021 results
The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) is concerned about the number of students not submitting their required School-Based Assessments (SBAs), as failure to do so would adversely impact the final grades being awarded.
Director of Operations in the Examinations Services Division Nicole Manning highlighted the missing scores during the release of the June/July 2021 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) results, yesterday.
She told the virtual ceremony hosted by the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, “For 2021, there were over 110,000 candidate entries for CAPE, with 94.6% submitting their SBAs. Now while it may not look a little lower than previous years, I must note two things – one, the number we do have and still we are working with the local Registrars - we do have a few SBA scores missing”.
“Now, this is not so much an alarm for CXC at this time because we are getting good responses from our local Registrars and the Ministries of Education. However, 4,839 representing 5% of the SBAs were not submitted to teachers. This is an important figure for planning and for improvement as we go forward – that the analysis be done for a good understanding as to why we would not have had that submission not only to CXC, but to teachers. What this is saying to us is that we did have candidates who would not have been able to complete and submit to their teachers”.
“For CAPE, likewise, we had a reduction in the number of percentage SBA records submitted. But again, what is more concerning are the candidates who would not have submitted the SBAs to teachers. So, you may have different situations and we would not know why, but that is showing 31,270 candidates who would not have submitted to their teachers,” she said.
Dr Manning reported that for CAPE and CSEC there was a reduction both in candidate entries, as well as subject entries – the lowest cohort for the last four years.
She said of significance was the high level of absenteeism for both CSEC and CAPE - the highest CXC has had in four years - persons who would have registered but would have decided not to attend the examinations. As it relates to overall deferrals, they received 1,251 for CAPE, and 15, 179 for CSEC.
At the CSEC level, Dr. Manning said there has been a decline recorded in English ‘A’ and Mathematics.
“For English A, the performance of candidates in 2021 showed a decline when compared to 2019 and 2020, however, an increase when compared to 2018. For Mathematics, generally we are seeing a decline over previous years for CSEC Mathematics. But, for the grade one’s, I must say that we had a fluctuation. So, when we compare it to 2019, candidates got more grade one’s this year, but when compared to 2018 you had a two percent reduction – nine percent this year, 11 percent in 2018 and eight percent in 2019”.
Moreover, for Information Technology the performance of candidates generally remained consistent across the region, where 89% of the candidates attained “acceptable grades” one to three in 2021, when compared to 90% in 2020, and 91% and 92% for 2018 and 2019, respectively.
Science subjects such as Biology, Chemistry and Integrated Science saw students also receiving “acceptable grades”.
For CAPE, Dr. Manning also highlighted that in Pure Mathematics unit two, 80 percent of candidates attained ‘acceptable grades’ one to five in 2021, when compared to 87% in 2020.
Caribbean Studies recorded 95 % of candidates attained ‘acceptable grades’ one to five in 2021, when compared 98 percent receiving ‘acceptable grades’ in 2020. Also, in Communication Studies 93 % of candidates across the region attained ‘acceptable grades’ of one to five in 2021, when compared to 96 percent in 2019 and 2020.