JAMAICAN students’ performance in the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) English Language exam fell slightly this year, breaking a trend over the last five years of increasing passes each year at grades one to three.

Last June, of a total of 10,547 students who sat the English Language exam, 53.7 per cent obtained either grade one, two or three, a significant jump from the 39.04 per cent who obtained those grades in 1998 and the 41.2 per cent in 1999. However, it was roughly four percentage points less than the 57.92 per cent who gained a grade one to three pass last year.

Mathematics performances, on the other hand, showed slight improvements. Of the 6,171 students who sat the exam this year, 36 per cent passed at either of the three grades. Last year, the percentage was 30.28, up significantly from the 20.74 per cent in 1998.

The Caribbean Examinations Council, in a press release from its head office in Barbados, noted that across the region the performance in Mathematics this year was generally better than in previous years.

Mathematics had the largest number of entries, 89,236, this year — 4,105 more than last year. Of the total entries, 10 per cent more students got grades one to three at the general proficiency this year than last year.

According to CXC, Mathematics candidates, in general, “demonstrated high computation and comprehension skills, but showed weaknesses in the areas of measurement, algebra, statistics and geometry”.

In nearly all the exams, CXC noted that there were overall improvements in performance across the region this year. Approximately 65 per cent of the subject entries presented for the general and technical proficiencies achieved grades one to three, compared with 57 per cent last year.

In Jamaica, there were more students this year who achieved passing grades in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Building Technology, Caribbean History, English Literature, Geography and Principles of Business.

Across the region, the number of entries for Information Technology this year jumped significantly, by an average of 22 per cent in both the general and technical proficiencies.

Regional performance in IT was “satisfactory”, according to CXC. However, Jamaica’s performance showed a decline in percentage of grades one to three passes, which moved from 91.76 per cent last year to 66.5 per cent this year. Jamaica’s figures were approximately three percentage points below the regional average.

Commenting on the Caribbean performance, CXC pointed to weaknesses in programming in both areas.

But in its analysis of Jamaica’s performance, which showed significant up-and-down fluctuations in the last five years, chief education officer in the education ministry, Wesley Barrett, suggested at a press conference on Tuesday that the fluctuations could be as a result of a shortage of computers in some schools.

“It has to do with (not) having computers, and schools are trying to get some in our enhancement programme,” he said.

Education Minister, Burchell Whiteman, however, argued that there were more factors involved.

“We have to be very honest about this. It isn’t only a matter of the function of the hardware or indeed the software, it has to do with the teaching capacity and also a close monitoring of the changes in the examination syllabus, because clearly, when you’re going up and down like that it suggests that somebody is not tracking the movements in the curriculum itself and the techniques to be applied. So those are things we have to look at.”

In the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination, (CAPE), which is the regional equivalent to Cambridge’s A level exams, the number of entries this year doubled that of last year and the performance has also been improving.

In 27 of the 40 CAPE examinations offered this year, more than 80 per cent of the candidates achieved grades one to five.

Noting this milestone in the press release, CXC registrar, Dr Lucy Steward commended education ministries across the region for their heightened interest in CAPE and for continuing to organise workshops for their teachers. These workshops, she said, deal “primarily with syllabus delivery and the design and scoring of the Internal Assessment component of the examination which contributes 20 per cent of the total score for most of the CAPE subjects”.

Admitting to a shortage of resource material for teachers, Dr Steward said CXC was addressing that problem through a joint project with the Commonwealth of Learning to develop flexible learning materials to support teaching and learning in a number of subjects.