THERE has been an 18 per cent increase in the number of students passing this year’s CXC Information Technology (IT) examinations, and Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) president Hopeton Henry has attributed the success rate to upgraded IT facilities and early exposure to computers.

Sunday Observer sources say the subject had a 74.87 per cent pass rate this year, compared to 56.93 per cent the previous year.

The facilities for IT has gradually improved, and a number of schools are going on e-learning projects and putting in computer laboratories,” Henry said, commenting on the results, which are to be officially published later this month.

He noted that competent teachers also had a hand in the success of the students.

“So, I think greater access and more competent teachers (have a role). IT is something that students gravitate to. In fact, we are living in a digital age, and students are like digital natives. They are now exposed to computers from a younger age, and so will do better,” he said.

The performance of students in English and Mathematics was not as encouraging. There was a slight increase in their performance in English and a slight decrease in their performance in Mathematics. But while not statistically significant, Henry said the results – 45.14 per cent passes in English this year compared to 44.66 per cent last year; and 29.60 per cent Mathematics passes compared to 31.58 per cent last year – were hardly a surprise.

The JTA president said the reality was that highly trained and competent teachers in these areas were the prime target of overseas recruiters. The result, he said, was that students sitting examinations in these areas were bereft of quality teachers and are, therefore, prone to underperformance.

“It is as though it is petering off,” said Henry of the English performances. “We have to recall that some of our best English teachers were recruited abroad and this continues, especially with the kind of aggressive approach the recruiters are using.”

Added Henry, “If they continue to recruit our best teachers, then there is going to continue to be a decline in the results. It takes years to build experience and therefore we are lucky to see the kind of marginal increase that we are seeing now. It is a test to the resilience of our teachers and our students, who perform under very trying circumstances.”

As for the mathematics performances, he said government would have to implement strategies to retain specialist teachers, who were becoming more scarce as the days go by.

“The Math teachers are the main targets for our recruiters and, therefore, if the government, for example, does not put in place measures for retaining these highly qualified Math teachers, then other areas will lure them away,” the JTA head told the Sunday Observer.

He said Math teachers must be given incentives to stay in the field, and in Jamaica.

“Students studying Maths are given various incentives in terms of scholarships. But at the other end, where you need to retain teachers, there is nothing,” he said.

“Teachers, in terms of pay, if they can be given bonuses, then they can be given incentives to perform – especially in areas where they are very scarce, such as in Mathematics.”