PERFORMANCE in the 2015 January sitting of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination continued the up-ward trend seen over the last two years. This year, 58 per cent of subject entries achieved acceptable grades, that is Grades I – III, compared with 50 per cent in 2014 and 49 per cent in 2013.
Of the 13 subjects offered at the January 2015 sitting, performance improved on 11 subjects and declined on two subjects.
Mathematics, the largest subject taken at this sitting recorded substantially improved performance this year, with 65 per cent of the nine thousand subject entries achieving acceptable grades. Fifteen per cent of the entries achieved Grade I; sixteen per cent achieved Grade II and 32 per cent achieved Grade III.
Performance on both English A and English B continue to improve when compared to last year. This year, 55 per cent of entries achieved acceptable grades in English A, compared with 51 per cent last year. There was a ten per cent improvement in performance in English B. Seventy-one per cent of subject entries achieved acceptable grades this year compared with 61 per cent last year. Over fifty per cent of the entries achieved at the higher grade bands, Grades I and II; 20 per cent achieved Grade I, 30 per cent achieved Grade II and 20 per cent achieved Grade III.
In the business cluster, Principles of Accounts (POA) and Principles of Business (POB) recorded improved performance when compared with 2014. For POA, 59 per cent of subject entries achieved acceptable grades compared with 53 per cent in 2014, while for POB, 75 per cent achieved similar grades, compared with 71 per cent in 2014. The other business subject, Office Administration was one of the two subjects with a decline in performance this year. Fifty-two per cent of entries achieved acceptable grades this year compared with 76 per cent in 2014.
Of the four science subjects offered at the January sitting, three recorded improved performance while performance declined on one. Sixty-one per cent of entries achieved acceptable grades for Biology compared with 53 per cent in 2014; forty-six per cent achieved acceptable grades in Chemistry compared with 37 per cent in 2014, and 57 per cent achieved acceptable grades in Physics compared with 49 per cent last year. Performance on Human and Social Biology continues to decline with 27 per cent of entries achieving acceptable grades this year compared with 34 per cent last year.
There was a 12 per cent improvement in performance in Information Technology this year when compared with performance in 2014. This year 62 per cent of entries achieved acceptable grades compared with 50 per cent in 2014.
Spanish and Social Studies had moderate improvement in performance when compared with 2014. For Spanish, 71 per cent of entries achieved acceptable grades compared with 67 per cent in 2014, while for Social Studies 54 per cent of entries achieved acceptable grades compared with 47 per cent in 2014.
This year, 16, 689 candidates wrote the January sitting and they submitted 40, 938 subject entries.