CXC reports on Caribbean exam results

The Barbados-based Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) has delivered the latest exam result to ministries of education around the region, with students set to find out their grades on Friday.

CXC has seen a decline across the region in the number of candidates who registered for major exams in the 2016-2017 academic year.

Stephen Savoury, director of operations at CXC, gave his assessment at the exam boards headquarters yesterday, announcing a 1-2% drop in entries for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Exam (CAPE).

Registration was up for courses in the Caribbean Vocational Qualification and the Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence.

Glenroy Cumberbatch, CXC registrar, said he was aware of falling population rates across the region, however only about 21% of candidates eligible to write CSEC exam were doing so.

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“So whether that number declines overall, the percentage is low. So if we can get at least 50% of those people who are eligible to write CSEC, write it, it should not make too much of a difference to CXC,” he told reporters.

“The other area is that even though the candidate numbers have gone down, from what I’ve seen, the subject entries are going up. So it means that instead of a candidate doing three subjects on average, they’re doing four on average now.

“And in order to get into jobs, get into universities and so on, there should be about five. So there is still room for growth within the falling populations.”

The CXC has recorded a slight improvement in this year’s CAPE examination results, compared to last year’s figures.

Cumberbatch said 92% of the candidates received grades one to five this year, compared to last year’s figure of 90%.

According to the registrar, new subjects were introduced in the last academic year, including financial services, in which 71% of candidates received grades one to five, and green engineering which had a 78% pass rate.