Queen’s College student tops CSEC with 19 Grade Ones ; others excel at CAPE

Last Updated on Wednesday, 13 August 2014, 1:01 by GxMedia

This year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Examination results clearly reflect that the many investments made by the administration are producing positive outcomes as the country’s top performers are drawn from several of the administrative regions.

Elisa Hamilton of Queen’s College, is this year’s top CSEC performer, while Bharti Bhoge of Skeldon Line Path Secondary, Region Six and Larissa Whiltshire of Queen’s College, shared the second place with 17 grade Ones.

Third place position went to Tressyia Ketwaroo of Skeldon Line Path Secondary and Lisa John of Queen’s College who both secured 16 Grade Ones and one Grade Two, each.

This year’s results were announced during a press conference, by Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand today at the National Centre for Resource Development (NCERD).

Other schools which made it among the country’s top performers include, the Anna Regina Secondary, Region Two with Bibi Areefa Mohammed securing 13 Grade Ones and six Grade Twos; Natasha Alladin of the J.C Chandisingh Secondary, Region Six who secured 15 Grade Ones; Farahnaz Hosain of Zeeburg Secondary, Region Three  with 13 Grade Ones and one Grade Two.

Khary Boyer of the North West Secondary, Region One secured 11 Grade Ones,  while Chelsia Singh of New Amsterdam Multilateral, Region Six secured 11 Grade Ones and three Grade Twos. Tereasia Ramlochan of the West Demerara Secondary, Region Three also secured 11 Grade Ones and two Grade Twos.

This year a total of 13,724 students sat the CSEC examination with 8,642 drawn from public schools and 5,080 from private schools.

An analysis of the results revealed that the overall pass rate at the General and Technical proficiencies for Grades One to three was 60.21 % as opposed to 59.31 % in 2013, with the overall 2014 Grades One to Four pass rate was 88.44 %.

These figures when compared to 2013 indicate a marginal increase in the Grades One to Three and Grades One to Four passes.

Of these subjects, the results indicated excellent performances in 12 subjects where the Grade One to Three passes exceeded 75%. 

The 12 subjects are: Agriculture Science (SA), Food and Nutrition, French, Home Economics Management, Information Technology, Physics, Religious Education, Theatre Arts, Electronic Document Preparation and Management, Physical Education and Sport, Additional Mathematics and Building Technology (Const.).

Satisfactory performances were recorded in 19 subjects where the Grades One to Three passes exceeded 50% while Grades One to Four passes were in excess of 75%: Agricultural Science (DA), Biology, Caribbean History, Chemistry, Clothing and Textiles, Economics, English B, Geography, Integrated Science, Office Administration, Principles of Accounts, Principles of Business, Social Studies, Spanish, Technical Drawing, Human and Social Biology, Building Technology (Woods), Electrical and Electronic Technology and Mechanical Engineering Technology. 

The overall performances in four subjects were unsatisfactory.  The Grades One to Three passes in these subjects were less than 50%.  These subjects are English A, Mathematics, Music and Visual Arts.

In Mathematics, the Grades One to Three pass rate for 2014 is 38.7%. This indicates over 9% increase from 2013, where the Grades One to Three pass rate was recorded as 28.92%.

The Grades One to Three performances in English A recorded a marginal increase from 45.69% in 2013 to 46.98% in 2014. Performance in English B remained relatively constant. 

The preliminary results of the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) have reflected a slight decrease in pass rate, but on the other hand, an increase was noted in the Grades 3 to 5 performances.

Of the 798 students who sat the examination this year, the overall pass rate was 85.07 percent compared to the 86.6 percent attained in 2013. Cecil Cox and Deowattie Narine, both of Queen’s College, were top performers, securing Grade One passes in seven units. 

During a press briefing today at the National Centre for Education Resource Development (NCERD), Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand made the announcement along with the top results for the 2014 Caribbean Secondary Education Council (CSEC) examination. 

Cox who secured Grade One passes in Applied Mathematics, Caribbean Studies, Chemistry, Computer Science, Pure Mathematics, Physics  and Digital Media, was among the top performers in the CSEC in 2013, placing fifth in the country with 16 Grades Ones.

He was also the recipient of the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) 2013 award for the Most Outstanding Science Student. Meanwhile Narine secured her passes in Communication Studies, Environmental Science, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Pure Mathematics and Physics.

Other outstanding performers include from Queen’s College Andy Sattan, Prashant Shivdas, Kaleshwar Singh and Benedict Sukra, who each secured Grade Ones in six units and Grade Two in one unit.

Also from Queen’s College Akeila Whitshire secured 5 Ones and 1 Grade Two, whilst Sasha Woodroofe secured 5 Ones.

Rounding off the top ten performers are Chaitram Mohammed and Karran Singh from St Rose’s High.

Mohamed secured 6 Ones and 2 Twos whilst Singh secured 5 Ones and 5 Twos.

A total of 798 candidates wrote CAPE in Guyana. They were offered 40 units at this year examination, which translated into 3465 subject entries and the 85.07 pass rate. 

Grade One accounted for 354 or 10.72 percent, Grade Two in 532 or 16.11 percent, Grade Three in 745 or 22.56 percent, Grade Four in 666 or 20.17 percent, and Grade Five in 15.51 percent.

No unit recorded a pass rate below 50 percent. Digital Media was offered for the first time and secured a 100 percent pass rate, whilst Caribbean Studies and Communication continued to record an over 95 percent pass rate. Pure Mathematics Unit remained somewhat constant with 58.9 percent in 2013 and 57.73 percent in 2014.

The gender distribution of the overall pass rate was 36 percent males to 64 percent females.