Sixteen months after announcing a pilot for its Caribbean Targeted Education Certificate (CTEC) in mathematics to tackle “the perennial under-performance of students” in the subject, the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) on Tuesday reported an 88 per cent pass rate among the 2,535 candidates who sat the exam in the May-June 2026 sitting. A total of 2,230 candidates passed.

Dr Wayne Wesley, CXC registrar and chief executive officer, made the disclosure during the live results ceremony from Anguilla, saying the results were proof that the region has “overwhelmingly accepted CTEC”.

“I am pleased indeed, and I am proud to announce that of these 2,535 candidates who wrote CTEC module one in the mathematics pilot examinations, 88 per cent achieved acceptable grades, and across the entire Caribbean only one candidate received the lowest grade. It simply means that most candidates are benefiting from the approach. Measured against a generation in which barely one in three candidates succeed in a typical sitting, this achievement represents a remarkable turnaround,” Wesley said.

Acknowledging, however, that “a module is not a whole subject”, the CXC registrar pointed out that “the full qualification still requires completion of every module at the full standard”.

WESLEY… this achievement represents a remarkable turnaround (Photo: JIS)

“But that is precisely what these results demonstrate. When learning is assessed in focused, achievable stages, our students do more than cope; they excel, they engage, persist, and succeed. The May-June mathematics pilot proves that the modular approach works for students, for classrooms, and for the region. This landmark result belongs to the young people who earned it,” Wesley stated.

CTEC, the new qualification which was unveiled by CXC in April 2025, is at the same standard of Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) and utilises the same syllabus.

“For years in mathematics — the subject that is foundational to every vocation in life — only about a third of our candidates have achieved acceptable grades in a typical sitting. Behind that statistic are hundreds of thousands of young people who sat in our classrooms for five years and walked away with nothing in hand to show for what they did learn. Not because they learn nothing, but because our instrument of assessment was an all-or-nothing event. One subject, one sitting, one verdict. If the verdict went against you, the system did not recognise you and stayed silent about your progress,” Wesley noted in explaining the motivation behind CTEC.

“I described CTEC as a game-changer, and I promised then that we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the Caribbean Examinations Council as we know it. Today we keep that promise and we make history in Anguilla by announcing that the achievement of the highly successful CTEC pilot in mathematics in the May/June 2026 examinations and, with the approval of our board of governors, CXC is pleased to officially launch the Caribbean Targeted Education Certificate,” the CEO said.

“At CXC we hold to the position that competence is competence, no matter how long it takes to achieve and no matter how the route and… no matter the route by which it comes. This is how things and times have changed. This is how we have to meet this generation of learners where they are,” he added.

Wesley contended that “an assessment model built in the [20th] century cannot be expected to adequately serve a 21st century generation”, but said “CTEC is assessment redesigned for learners without lowering by a single degree the standard to which we hold”.

“When we were designing CTEC we asked ourselves, would the region embrace it? Today we have proof of concept from a region that has overwhelmingly accepted CTEC. When we invited the region to pilot CTEC mathematics module 1, more than 2,500 candidates stepped forward as pioneers across 15 territories, and 42 centres from Jamaica to Belize, from Barbados to the Cayman Islands and Anguilla, which was among the first countries to sign on to the pilot. Principals told us that their students were excited about the pilot examinations,” he said.

Wesley said the modularised examination format will now be applied to four other subject areas going forward, given the success of the maths module pilot.

“This is a new day for our Caribbean learners on the strength of this CTEC mathematics pilot. The Caribbean Examinations Council is declaring to our students this simple truth: What you know counts. We hear you. We see you. Your learning has been seen, measured, and certified. You are not at the end of the road. You are on your way up the staircase,” he said.

Telling policymakers across the region that “CTEC is yours to embed in your national education strategies, in your workforce and TVET planning and second chance programmes”, Wesley said CXC’s team was ready to work with the various ministries of education across the region and will be visiting territories in the weeks ahead to do exactly that.

CXC also said the 2,535 candidates who were involved in the pilot will continue to enjoy doing the other modules free of cost.

The candidates have a four-year period to complete it and will receive CSEC certification at the end.