A student each from the Girls High School (GHS) and the Mountain View Adventist Academy (MVAA) passed 16 subjects while a St. Vincent Grammar School (SVGS) pupil aced 15 subjects in this year’s Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination.
According to preliminary results released by the Ministry of Education on Tuesday, Sariah Jackson of GHS sat and passed 16 subjects, obtaining 14 grade ones, one grade two and one grade 3.
MVAA student Kyle Da Silva’s 16 passes were made up of 15 grade ones and one grade two while Delaan Nedd of the SVGS passed all his 15 subjects at grade 1.
The GHS was St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ top performer in the regional secondary school exit examination, with a pass rate of 97.42 per cent, almost 7 percentage points higher than the second placed school.
The nation’s other all-girls school, St. Joseph’s Convent (Kingstown), returned a pass rate of 90.82 per cent to outdo the SVGS, which had a pass rate of 88.69 per cent.
In fourth place was Thomas Sanders Secondary School, with a pass rate of 84.89 per cent.
MVAA’s students returned a pass rate of 84.67 per cent, while, St. Joseph’s Convent Marriaqua, registered 84.57 per cent, almost 4 percentage points more than St. Martin’s Secondary’s 80.82 per cent.
In addition to these seven schools which recorded percentage pass rates of 80 per cent or more, 13 schools, obtained what the ministry described as “creditable pass rates” of between 60 and 80 per cent.
They are: Bishops’ College Kingstown (76.72), Bequia Community High (76.47), Bequia Seventh-day Adventist (74.71), Dr. J.P. Eustace Memorial Secondary (74.09), St. Clair Dacon Secondary School (72.02), Adelphi Secondary (71.19), Union Island Secondary School (67.91), Emmanuel High Mesopotamia (66.88), Troumaca Secondary (66.09), Georgetown Secondary (64.91). West St. George Secondary (64.68), Sandy bay Secondary School (62.98), and North Union Secondary (61.20).
Bequia Community High and Dr. J.P. Eustace Memorial Secondary showed vast year-on-year improvement in their results.
BCHS’s pass rate increased 25.21 per cent, moving from 52.26 per cent in 2017, while the JP Eustace Memorial Secondary increased by 24.82 per cent, moving from 49.27 per cent last year.
The ministry said 2,726 candidates were registered, 1,052 of whom were private candidates.
There were 1,647school candidates sitting 11,839 subjects entries in 32 subject areas from 26 secondary schools.
Approximately 74.67 per cent of the subject entries were awarded Grades I-III, compared to 73.25 per cent in 2017and 74.66 per cent in 2016.
This year, 16.82 per cent of the passes were at Grade 1 level, 37.29 per cent at Grade II and 45.89 at Grade III.
Last year’s figures were 11.40 per cent at Grade I, 27.33 at Grade II and 34.53 per cent at Grade III.
Mourine Williams, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, said: “The Ministry of Education congratulates all students and extends gratitude to the principals, teachers and staff of all schools for their support of the students. We are cognisant of the fact that the outcomes in education are measures, not only in quantitative terms, but also in qualitative terms; therefore, the value added to the lives of all of the students, the top performers as well as those whose performance can be improved is greatly appreciated.
“All principals continue to work diligently in conjunction with the ministry of Education in support of their schools’ effectiveness and the students’ success.”
Where is the regular commenters to give their findings ? Well isn’t the Prime minister ,so there’s no need for such vicious attacks .
It doesn’t matter which school you attend , it is about applying your self to learning , to achieve a good education to help eradicate poverty and poor mentality .
Those 16 subjects you have decided the number of passes by there to get a meaning total.when compare it to the old system. When I took the CXC exama grade there was never considered to be a pass. Since when grade two is pass?
These students must be our most gifted in history because nearly 60 years ago when I attended secondary school the most brilliant students were only able to obtain high grades in eight subjects, none of which included such demanding study areas as “home economics” or “office administration.”
There are also 33 different subjects being taught, a sure sign that basic knowledge has exploded since the dark and ignorant days when I went to school.
Some cynics would say passing 16 dumbed-down subjects with sky-high grades today would be equivalent to passing eight subjects with average grades decades ago.
These same cynics would claim that the presence of 33 different subjects is symptomatic of a knowledge base that is a mile wide but an inch thick.
But what do I know about this “education revolution” when I’m an intellectual dinasour with a meagre eight A-level GCE Cambridge subjects, none of them at the highest grade.
By today’s standards, I guess I’m just a dunce.
This is good news. The amount of potential SVG have should be evident now to all. Our prayers now are that 100% of the potential university candidates find their way to prosperity and happiness. I hope there are a few scientists, doctors, medical personnel, farmers, electricians and so on amongst them. We need to have programs to target and tap into these valuable human resources. Congratulations to the education professionals, teachers, and the graduating students. Good luck to you all.
I would like to see a 10-year follow up of the life-chance outcomes of these graduates, something that is not carefully done even in many developed societies.
Yes, we know that there is a correlation between educational level and income level but in a society like ours with so little scope for advancement, a high proportion of graduates would have to permanently migrate to achieve their potential, an example of home-made neocolonial exploitation if there ever was one.
Why should we invest so much time and money educating people when the main beneficiaries, apart from the students themselves, are the already wealthy First World countries like America, Canada, and England?
At the end of the day, all we get are crumbs sent back home to feed hungry family, a process that ends when the family die out.
A rather interesting use of “Statistics”!
I just hope this peculiar use of statistics is not meant to be deceptive… I doubt that “a pass rate of 97.42 per cent by the GHS” means that passes were obtained in 97.42 per cent of the subjects attempted by students of the GHS… I really doubt.
Glory, badmouth and evil would not prevail, SVG is on the move. Congrats youths, continue to make us proud. Where’s clueless Friday?