Ministry of Education in SVG doing something right – CXC Registrar

An official from the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has pronounced that the Ministry of Education in St Vincent and the Grenadines is “doing something right.”

CXC registrar Glenroy Cumberbatch was commenting on gender performance in the region, {{more}}when he noted that there is a wider gender disparity within the region than in St Vincent and the Grenadines, as it relates to the performance of boys and girls on the various examinations administered by the regional body.

Cumberbatch was speaking at the regional results announcement ceremony at the Peace Memorial Hall in Kingstown on Monday.

In the CAPE examinations, he noted that there is a high rate of females in the region that have grades I, II, II, IV and V and that the numbers begin to fall as they approach grade VII.

The registrar also stated that the boys in the region start low, with 35 per cent recording grade I passes, 34 per cent recording grade II passes and that the majority seem to come at grade VII.

“The gap between the girls and the boys is reasonably wide,” he said.

However, in St Vincent and the Grenadines, the gender disparity was recorded to be better than in the region for CAPE.

“If we look at St Vincent and the Grenadines for females, you see a nice distribution from grade I to grade VII, with the bulk coming in grade III and IV. The boys’ performances are not too far away. The boys’ performance, except for grade II, which is the widest difference between the girls and the boys, it is consistent from grade IV right down to grade VII,” he explained.

“So, in St Vincent, the gender disparity in terms of performance is much closer than the gender disparity in the rest of the region. So, you’re doing something right.”

Like CAPE, CSEC also shows similar results and Cumberbatch noted that in this country, there continues to be a closer collaboration between girls’ performance and boys’ performance than that for the region.

In terms of the Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence (CCSLC) examination, results vary in some categories.

“Females in the region in terms of competence, you have about 60 per cent of those persons that are competent. Females in St Vincent are much higher than that. It is 65 per cent. So, in terms of those showing competence in CCSLC, there are more people in St Vincent, a higher percentage of people in St Vincent, who are certified as being competent than for the rest of the region. It is also so for the males. The males in St Vincent, about 62 per cent, whereas the males for the region is about 56 per cent,” Cumberbatch explained.

“If you look at mastery, on the other hand, the females in the region are about 32 per cent, 17 per cent for St Vincent. So, in terms of mastery, you are not doing as well. And in terms of the males, only about 10 per cent show mastery. In the region [it is] 23 per cent.”

The registrar added that this country records highest percentage for males developing competence, while the region has the lowest percentage for females.

“We need to convert some of those competent into mastery and some of those developing competent into being competent,” Cumberbatch said.(BK)