Education Minister, Ronald Jones, announcing the results of the 2017 Barbados Secondary Schools’ Entrance Examination at the Elsie Payne Complex today while looking on are: (left to right) Senior Education Officer (Exams), Glyne Price; Permanent Secretary, June Chandler; Parliamentary Secretary, Senator Harry Husbands; and Chief Education Officer, Karen Best. (C.Pitt/BGIS)
A constant improvement in English is what the Ministry of Education is seeing each year, and this year is no exception.
This was emphasised today when Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ronald Jones, addressed a media briefing on the results of the 2017 Barbados Secondary Schools’ Entrance Examination.
Stating that the National Mean for this subject was 70.4, he said this represented an increase of 2.48 per cent when compared to that of 2016 when it stood at 67.92.
“English is constantly improving and this year Maths improved by quite a significant number. So, something continues to happen in both private and public primary schools,” the Education Minister said.
The overall mean in 2015 was 67.11, while in 2016 it was 67.92. Noting that performances for males were 62.63 in 2015; 63.20 in 2016; and 66.5 in 2017, he said: “In other words, where there is an improvement overall males also improve and females continued to improve.” Female performance in English was 71.76 in 2015, 72.70 in 2016 and this year, 74.2.
In 2017, 230 students (7.2 per cent) were said to have scored less than 30 per cent as compared to 2016 where it was 289 (8.2 per cent). Nine hundred and thirty-six students (29.1 per cent) scored in the mid-range (between 30 and 69) as compared to 1,147 (32.5 per cent) in 2016.
Mr. Jones stressed: “Even though it reads like that, it is a decline in those scoring in that mid-range. So you would find an improvement at the top band just as you have in Mathematics. So 2,050 or 63.7 per cent scored in the high range of 70 to 100 as compared to 2091 or 59.3 per cent in 2016, so you can say it is four per cent that scored in the higher end.” He noted that the scores represented “a very good mix” between public and private schools.
Concluding, the Education Minister said: “You can go away with the feeling that something is happening in primary education, that teachers are generally performing with these students and students don’t only begin at 11 Plus. They begin down through the system so there have been improvements overall.”