This year’s CSEC results revealed several successes: Grenada’s performance was better than the regional performance in all the Pure Sciences; one student received acceptable grades (I-III) in 18 subjects, with 16-grade ones – a first for Grenada, while 17 schools had overall pass rates of 80 percent or more, a significant improvement to eight schools in 2019.
However, the Ministry still believes that the achievements of students have much room for improvement and will continue to work with all stakeholders to improve overall performance.
Preliminary results of the May/June 2020 Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate Examinations (CSEC) were received on September 22nd, 2020 in Grenada. A total of 2,302 candidates were registered to write CXC (CSEC) examinations out of which one thousand four hundred and forty-three (1,443) were females and eight hundred and fifty-nine (859) were males. Two thousand, and sixty-nine (2,069) were candidates attending school, while two hundred and thirty-three (233) were private candidates.
There were 11,926 subject entries in thirty-two (32) subject areas. Twenty-four (24) secondary schools, the Programme for Adolescent Mothers (PAM) and twenty-four (24) private centres participated in the examination. The largest entries were in Mathematics (1,601), English A (1,534), Social Studies (715), Principles of Business (654) and Information Technology (511).
The lowest entries were in Music (1), Industrial Technology Mechanical (11), Theatre Arts (29), Additional Mathematics (55), and Religious Education (55).
Overall, there were 1,927 Grade ones, 3,483 Grade twos, 3,509 Grade threes, 2,038 Grade fours, 507 Grade fives, 74 Grade sixes and 388 ungraded or absent.
The percentage pass rate (Grades I-III) in the examination was 77.3%, an improvement of 2.76% compared to the 74.54% in 2019. In 2018, the pass rate was 70.50%.
The subjects with the highest percentage pass were Theatre Arts (100%), Music (100%), Industrial Technology Mechanical (100%), Physical Education and Sport (99.49%), Electronic Documentation Preparation and Management (98.99%), Technical Drawing (96.46%), 1
Agricultural Science (95.05%) Industrial Technology-Electrical (93.40%), Principles of Business (93.2%) Food, Nutrition and Health (93.03%), Information Technology (92.74%), Office Administation (92.14%).
The subjects with the lowest percentage pass were, Mathematics (43.56%), Spanish (55.73%) Human and Social Biology (63.60%), Economics (64.03%) and Chemistry (64.65%).
Performance in Mathematics improved by 4.97%, from 38.59% in 2019 to 43.56% in 2020. The percentage pass was 38.57% in 2018. Performance in English A, continued on the upward trajectory, with the pass rate moving from 78.28% pass in 2019 to 82.65% pass in 2020.
Table 2: Comparison of percentage pass rate in Mathematics and English A
The performance of students in English A is comparable to the region. However, Mathematics pass rate continues to remain below the regional level.
Performances in two of the pure sciences decreased marginally in 2020. Physics increased by 5.69%. Performance in Chemistry and Biology increased by 3.97% and 1.95%, respectively. Table 3 shows a comparison of the percentage pass rate in these areas for 2018, 2019 and 2020, against the region’s performance.
Table 3: Comparison of percentage pass rate in the pure Sciences in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Grenada’s performance was better than regional performance in all Pure Sciences.
Seventeen (17) schools recorded overall pass rates of 80% or more. This is a marked improvement when compared to the eight (8) schools in 2019.
These schools are as follows:
Table 2: Schools with 80% or more percentage pass rate.
The schools with the most significant improvement in 2020, were Grenada Christian Academy (38.97%), Programme for Adolescent Mothers (33.33%), Boca Secondary School (24.64%), Happy Hill Secondary (24.64%) and Grenville Secondary (14.57%).
A marked improvement was also noted in the highest number of subject passes obtained by students and the quality of those passes.
One student received acceptable grades (I-III) in eighteen (18) subjects with 16-grade ones, one grade two and one grade three. Two students obtained 13 grade ones, five students achieved 12 grade ones, seven students obtained 11 grade ones and four students attained 10 grade ones in the examination. In 2019, the highest number of subject passes, fifteen (15) was obtained by one student whilst two students obtained 14 grade ones.
NB: The Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development and Religious Affairs has not yet received the preliminary slips for individual candidates from the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC). Therefore, candidates will have to collect individual slips in the next week or two when they are received from the council. Candidates can continue to access their results electronically via the CXC Student Portal.
Note also that these results are preliminary and that CXC reserves the right to correct the information which will be confirmed on the final certificate.
