KINGSTON, Jamaica — Performance in all three natural science subjects in the January 2017 sitting of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination improved when compared to 2016.

The Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) in a release today disclosed that the most significant improvement was in Physics, with 65 per cent of the entries achieving grades one to three, the acceptable grades at CSEC. This is a seven-percentage improvement when compared with performance in 2016.

Meanwhile, performance in Biology and Chemistry improved over last year, but still remained below the 50 per cent threshold.

For Biology, 47 per cent of entries achieved grades one to three, compared with 39 per cent last year, CXC said.

Chemistry recorded a three per cent improvement with 39 per cent of entries achieving acceptable grades.

Of the 13 subjects offered in the January sitting, performance increased on five subjects, declined on six and remained the same on two subjects. Subjects with declining performance included English A, Mathematics, Office Administration, Social Studies, Spanish and Human and Social Biology. 

CXC’s Director of Operations, Stephen Savoury, said the organisation is pleased with the results. He outlined that in addition to the improved performances, the number of students who registered for the subjects also increased.

There was also an increase in the number of out-of-school candidates who sat the exams.