Education Ministry releases examination results |01 February 2020
The officials speaking about the exams results during the press conference yesterday (Photos: Jude Morel)
The Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development yesterday held a press conference in which the Primary 6, IGCSE, DELF and Advanced Level Studies (A-Level) exam results for the year 2019 were presented.
School of Advanced Level Studies (Sals)
The School of Advanced Level Studies (Sals) is pleased with the performance of the candidates in their final University of Cambridge International examinations, completed in October and November 2019.
The number of entries for the eighteen different A-Level subjects was 228, of which 55% of the entries were at grade C or better, as compared to 52% in 2018. The overall principal pass rate was 96% up from 94% in 2018.
Five students were awarded straight ‘A’s, namely, Abisheak Sathiyarmoorthy (A*A*A* A*), Pria Chavda (A* A* A*A), Sandra Rachel (A A A A), Shiela Louise (A A A B), and Alexandra Eulentin (A* A A), compared to 3 in 2018. Other high performers are Emico Leon (A A B B), and Stanio Hoareau (A* A* B).
Of the 104 candidates, 28 students obtained the required level of points – 18 – for progression to further studies while others attained 12 to 16 points.
100% principal pass rate was recorded in 12 subjects as compared to nine in 2018 namely; Sociology, Literature in English, Economics, History, Physics, Travel and Tourism, English Language, Psychology, Geography, Business, Accounting and French.
The pass rate for these subjects Mathematics, Chemistry and Computer Science, was between 92% and 93%. For the other subjects, Biology was 86%, Law 80% and Art and Design 67%. Overall, 90% Pass Rate was recorded in 15 subjects, compared to 14 in 2018.
It must be noted that the group to sit for last year’s exam was the last group to sit for 18 examinations. The group currently enrolled at Sals and subsequent groups will have a choice of ten facilitating subjects including Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, Geography and History.
“The Sals staff, whether the subjects are there or removed, are fired up to bring the business and I can tell you that regardless of which subjects are on offer, the strategy is the same, the bottom line, the standards are the same. Being leaner means we may have more time on our hands to concentrate further into the subjects,” Mr Omondi, Sals’ head, concluded, stating that he is confident that there will be a great improvement in academic achievement at the school in future.
P6 National Examinations Results
Detailing the results of the P6 National examination results director for Examination and Certification, Kevin Telemaque, noted that a total of 1315 pupils enrolled to sit the six examinable subjects, namely, English, French, Creole, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies compared to 1348 in the previous year. However, around 1293 actually sat those examinations on average, representing 99% of the cohort population.
According to theMinistry of Education and Human Resource Development, the results for this year are rather mixed with a slight increase in performance in most subjects with students performing better in languages as opposed to Mathematics, Science and Social Studies.
Despite the improvements, general performance level still remains much below the set standard as students are still struggling to meet the ministry’s benchmark of obtaining 50% or more in principal passes (Grades A* to C) in each subject.
Furthermore, it should be noted here that in 2018, the proportion of principal passes in languages fell significantly, despite still being higher than those of Mathematics, Science and Social Studies.
Regarding the performance of students across all six subjects in terms of principal passes, it is worth noting that 12.7% of students obtained principal passes across all six subjects, which represents a slight increase over 2018.
From the schools’ perspective, seven schools surpassed the set standard in at least one subject and one school in particular performed above the set standard across all six subjects; in the range of 52% to 76%.
In terms of satisfactory passes, meaning Grade D and E, the number of satisfactory passes increased slightly over 2018, being in the range of 28% to 38%, compared to 24% to 37% in the previous year, and the proportions of students not obtaining a pass grade remains at 10% over the last two years.
“There are many initiatives on the part of the ministry to boost students’ performance and a lot of resources allocated to schools. Education is a shared responsibility and the performance means schools are compelled to analyse results and draw up a plan that they feel can help to improve academic performance within their respective schools,” Mr Telemaque noted.
IGCSE and DELF Examinations
With regards to IGCSE and DELF examinations, the ministry reported, that in the school year 2019, the pass rate was 98.54% in IGCSE and 98% in DELF examinations.
The S5 student population was 1081 in 2019 compared to 1161 in 2018.
The total number of S5 students registered for the IGCSE exams in 2019 was 632 compared to 692 in 2018 and the pass rate was at 98.54%, an increase of 1% compared to 2018.
The percentage of students scoring grade C or higher in IGCSE subjects in 2019, was 38.93%. This shows an increase of 4% compared to 2018, which stood at 35%.
Two subjects reached the 50% target, in 2019. These were First Language English which remains the subject where students perform better, with 80% of them scoring grade C or better.
Mathematics recorded a 51% pass in 2019, compared to 49% in 2018.
730 students were registered for DELF in 2019, compared to 701 in 2018.
As for S4 students’ achievements for 2019, eighty (80) S4 students registered for English as a second language, compared to 77 in 2018. The pass rate remained at 100%, similar to the previous year, whereas 86% of students scored grades C or better in 2019, compared to 83% in 2018.
As for DELF B1 there were 45 students registered in 2019 compared to 53 in 2018.
The pass rate was 100% compared to 96% in 2018.
There was a general increase in performance in IGCSE results in 2019 compared to 2018. However, with the continuing support of their parents and school personnel, students will need to increase the level of hard work, for even better results.
Senior assessment development officer for International Exams, Arnold Chang Pen Tive, said performance is mainly the same as 2018 and highlighted the numerous efforts by the ministry to improve attainment levels nationally through the introduction of online training for teachers to broaden their knowledge in their respective subjects and improve teaching.
As for DELF examinations, senior assessment development officer, Zitabella Labiche, noted that the majority of students experience difficulties with oral comprehension across all schools and proposed more training and use of authentic texts in classrooms to enable students to improve memorisation and their note-taking skills.
S3
A total of 1338 students were registered to sit examinations in English, French, Mathematics, Science, Geography and History in 2019 compared to 1279 in the previous year. However, 1250 actually sat those examinations on average, representing 93% of the cohort population.
The Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development would like to state that the results for this year are varied.
There has been a slight increase in the performance of students where satisfactory passes (Grades D-E) are concerned. The performance in English and French remains significantly better than the other four subjects, a similar trend which was observed in 2017/2018. For three consecutive years now, the performance in Geography has shown the greatest improvement, whereas the performance in Mathematics continues to take a significant down turn where pass rates are concerned.
In general, there has been a slight increase in the number of principal passes in certain subjects in 2019, namely in French, Geography, History and Mathematics. Even if English is a subject where student performance is relatively better than other subjects, it must be noted that the performance for English for 2019 has dropped by 3%.
In relation to the performance of students across the six subjects in terms of principal passes, there has been only a 0.7% increase in the number of students obtaining grades A* to C across all the six subjects.
From the schools’ perspective, 7 out of 10 schools surpassed the set standard of 50% in French and 2 out of 10 schools in English, in the range of 51% to 68% of principal passes.
The number of satisfactory passes decreased slightly over 2019, being in the range of 12% to 30%, compared to 13% to 30% in the previous year, while the proportions of students not obtaining a pass grade has increased by 2%, from 26% in 2018 to 28% in 2019.
Compiled by Laura Pillay