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On August 12, 2016, the wait for thousands of Guyanese students was finally over. They were finally about to know what was the results of their months of grueling studies, extra lessons and sleepless nights.
On that fateful day, the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) unveiled the results for this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate Examination (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE), written in the May/ June period.
The long anticipated results had come just in time for students to plan their next moves, as the new academic year was quickly approaching.
Despite the date that the results were revealed by CXC, the Ministry of Education in Guyana, after much deliberation, chose to reveal the national results on August 17 at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development. There, officials basically gave a rundown of the statistics that concerned the exams.
For CSEC, it was found that there was an increase in the number of candidates who registered to sit the exam than in previous years; with entrances from private schools accounting for approximately 35 per cent of all candidates. That is, a total of 12,809 students having sat the exams, 4540 were from private schools.
In contrast, CXC reported that for the Caribbean, there was a vast decrease in the amount of candidates from 132,824 in 2015 to 132,674 this year.
Taking into consideration the area of subject entries, there was a total of 73,303 in Guyana, with a reported pass rate of 63.39 per cent. This would therefore mean a marginal increase from the previous 62.72 per cent in 2015. Yet again, Guyana’s performance contrasts that of the region, which, even though it had a total subject entry of 585,223, it had a pass rate of 66 per cent. This represented a decrease from 2015’s 68 per cent. It is important to note however, that the pass rate was strictly dependent on attainment of Grades One to Three.
In English A, one of the two core subjects, Guyana saw an overall pass rate of 59.3 per cent, an increase from the lower 49.36 per cent in 2015, reflective of CXC’s increase in the pass rate for said subject from 60 per cent in 2015 to 67 per cent this year.
There was also a positive correlation between the decrease in the pass rate for Mathematics for both the Caribbean and Guyana, with 57 per cent in 2015 to 44 per cent in 2016 and 45.07 per cent in 2015 to 38.37 per cent in 2016, respectively.
In terms of the top students for this year, of the 12,809 who wrote, a total of 46 were able to obtain Grade Ones in 11 subjects and over. Further, topping that list was a student from St. Rose’s High School, Fatima Karim, who managed to obtain 19 Grade Ones and 1 Grade Two.
The teen, who attended Marian Academy in her early high school life, had transferred to The Bishops’ High School, where she spent her third form year. She made her switch to St. Rose’s High School after learning that Bishops’ had a limit to the amount of subjects that a student could write.
Her intention from the inception was to be the best, as she stated “students should be allowed to write as many subjects as they can and that is my belief. Once they have the ability and they can do it then they should go for it.” Her statement came after comments over the sheer quantity of subjects that she and other students undertook to write. Coming in second for the country was Kayshav Tewari from Queen’s College, with 19 Ones, and in third was Aadilah Ali also from Queen’s College, who obtained 18 Grade Ones, 3 Twos and 1 Grade Three.
The remainder of the top ten are as follows: Ramkumarie Ramdass of Saraswati Vidya Niketan, who obtained 18 Grade Ones and 1 Grade Two; Sariah Singh of Queen’s College with 18 Ones; Joshua Indarjit of Skeldon Line Path Secondary School with 17 Ones; Kimberly Najab also of Saraswati Vidya Niketan with 15 Grade Ones and 3 Grade Twos; followed by Kevin Lall of Anna Regina Secondary School who managed to obtain 15 Grade Ones. And lastly, Pritisha Baldeo and Narindra Persaud, both from Saraswati Vidya Niketan and both obtaining 14 Grade Ones, 3 Grade Twos and 3 Grade Threes.
This year also, the pass rates of specific schools were commended, having topped their respective regions. For Region two, it was Anna Regina Secondary School with a pass rate of 87.78 per cent, Zeeburg Secondary School for Region three with 85.14 per cent and for Region four it was President’s College with 89.23 per cent.
In Region five, Rosignol Secondary School came out with 66.05 per cent; Region Six, Berbice High School with 89.52 per cent; Region Nine, St. Ignatius Secondary School with 84.55 per cent and in Georgetown, Queen’s College managed to top the list with 96.1 per cent closely followed by The Bishops’ High School with 95 per cent, a difference of 1.1 per cent.
In terms of the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE), 898 students partook, with a total of 4062 subject entries. The recorded pass rate was found to be 86.74 per cent with 478 of the 4062 subject entries providing Grade Ones, 746 Grade Twos, 860 Grade Threes, 689 Grade Fours and 535 Grade Fives.
The top CAPE student came from Queen’s College, being Deenauth Mohabeer, who obtained 6 Grade Ones and 1 Grade Two.
Eighteen year old Mohabeer is an aspiring artificial intelligence designer and so hopes to further his studies in the field of Computer Science.
Following close behind him in second place was Larissa Wiltshire, an aspiring dentist, also of Queen’s College, who obtained 6 Grade Ones.
Joash Gobin, Ashley Anthony and Shannon Woodroffe, all from Queen’s College as well were each able to acquire Grade One passes in six subjects as well.
The Bishops’ High School’s Carissa Kissoon was also able to obtain 6 Grade Ones.
Those who obtained 5 Grade Ones and over included the likes of Jonathan Gobin, Elisa Hamilton, Lisa John, Aliyah Rasheed, Vishnu Singh, and Abigail Somrah, of Queen’s College and Steffan Ageda, Nandani Ramdass and Malena Ramdeo of The Bishops’ High School. Vamadev Hiralall of Saraswati Vidya Niketa was also among the top scorers obtaining 5 Grade Ones and 3 Grade Threes.
