The Ministry of Education is looking into methodology to improve the pass rate among students sitting Mathematics at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination.
Minister of Education, St. Clair Jimmy Prince said in Parliament on Tuesday that the performance in Mathematics is currently on a downward spiral not only here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines but also in other Caribbean countries.
He disclosed that the pass rate in Mathematics here moved from 47.35% in 2016, to 40.13% in 2017.
“Students performances in the sciences have been consistently good with the exception of Mathematics and Human and Social Biology,” the Education Minister said.
“There is concern about Math and we’re hoping that in the coming years we will be able to improve the numbers in this particular subject. Of course we are aware that we are on par or even better in some cases than other Caribbean countries, however we cannot be satisfied with this, we have to look at it again and already the Ministry through the Curriculum Development Unit is looking at what can be done in respect of methodology or whatever else that we can use to improve the numbers in Math and the other subjects. The rest of the Caribbean of course has been looking at it and we hope that within the next few years things would change,” Minister Prince added.
Minister Prince said students pass rate in Human and Social Biology also appears to be weak.
“Students performance in Human and Social Biology has also appeared to be weak, the percentage pass in this subject 43.21% and although this figure represents an increase of 3.06% the overall pass rate in this subject area for the past three years has been lingering at the 45% average.
The Education Minister, meanwhile, welcomed the overall improvement in students’ performance in the area of Technical and Vocational Education.
He said students’ performance especially in Technical Drawing improved. They recorded an improvement in performance from 49.67% in 2016, to 76.92% this year.
Minster Prince said all other subject offerings in this area recorded pass rates in excess of 60%.
