BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, Jan. 04.18 - THE decline in Mathematics and English passes at Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) exams, is being seen at both the Secondary Tertiary levels.
That announcement was made by the Chairman of the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC), Sir Hilary Beckles, during a recently held press conference where he stated that they have a concern with the level of computation skills in young people.
“We have tried to get to the bottom of it; in some instances it has to do with the teachers with special skills in mass teaching, or teachers who have graduated and have degrees in mathematics. Many have migrated out of the schools, and make a more handsome living in the private sector.”
The Chairman said that it could be a case of students not being properly stimulated by experts in the field.
He said that English A has been presenting issues as well.
“There are very interesting intellectual questions around why more, and more young people can’t be expressive in the dialect of their communities and unable to make the transition back to formal English.”
Registrar of CXC, Glenroy Cumberbatch disclosed that every year, over 50,000 students gain grades one to three passes in Mathematics, while over 60,000 gain similar passes in English.
He said that since society requires all students leaving school to have Math and English, they have implemented two committees to review the causes of the decline.
The investigation aims “to find out what it is that is preventing persons from gaining competence in mathematics and in English. And what it is that they can do; we can do; the schools can do; the teachers can do; the children can do to increase their chances in becoming better prepared in Math and English.”
To this end, he stated that those committees - one for English and the other for math - have not yet submitted any report of their findings.
But once the Council is in possession of such, they would be able to put a strategy in place to deal with the problem, and share such with all Education Ministries, Cumberbatch disclosed.
St. Kitts and Nevis, like many other islands saw decreasing passes in the two subject areas.
