Guyana tops region in CXC’s CAPE exams

The Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) has declared Guyana the top performing country in this year’s Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE).

The announcement was made during the June/July 2021 results ceremony hosted by CXC in Guyana on Thursday – a day ahead of the results being released to candidates on Friday.

“Overall, Guyana’s (CAPE) performance was marginally higher compared to the rest of the region,” said CXC director of operations Dr Nicole Manning.

“We had 16 units of which 100 per cent candidates received grades 1-5.”

In a seven-tier grading scheme, grades 1-5 are considered passes.

In integrated mathematics, Guyana received an 80 per cent pass rate to the region’s 64 per cent; in sociology unit one Guyana received a 96 per cent pass rate to the region’s 90 per cent; law unit one Guyana received a 95 per cent pass rate to the region’s 89 per cent.

Guyana also received high pass rates for Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations.

In a grading system of 1-6, CSEC grades 1-3 are considered passes.

Guyana received a 69 per cent pass rate in integrated science to the regional 66 per cent. In human and social biology, the country received a 77 per cent pass rate to the region’s 68 per cent; and in information technology, it received 93 per cent to the region’s 89 per cent.

Overall, Manning said there was a reduction in candidate and subject entries for the exams in 2021. She said it was the lowest cohort in four years. She said the council also recorded the highest absenteeism in four years. These candidates were not a part of those who chose to defer their exams to 2022.