Sarah Ramdatt of St. George’s Secondary is the BVI’s top student in the annual CXC Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Examinations, after passing ten subjects with eight Grade 1’s and two Grade 2’s.
This was confirmed by the Minister for Education Honourable Sharie De Castro during a recent sitting of the House of Assembly.
The second best BVI student was Jade Smith of the BVI Seventh Day Adventist Secondary while Reina Wheatley of the Claudia Creque Educational Centre rounded off the top three.
“Jade Smith of BVI Seventh Day Adventist Secondary in 2nd place with passes in 8 subjects, including Mathematics and English A, with six Grade Is, one Grade II and one Grade III and Reina Wheatley of Claudia Creque Educational Centre in 3rd place with passes in 7 subjects, including Mathematics and English A, with six Grade Is and one Grade III. I offer my sincere congratulations to these top three students and to all others who were able to receive acceptable passes in their various subjects, thereby making the territory of the Virgin Islands proud,” De Castro stated.
The education minister said a total of 261 students from the BVI wrote the examinations with 203 from public schools and 58 from private schools.
She also provided a detailed breakdown of the overall awards achieved based on the respective grades.
“The 2021-2022 academic year, although it brought with it several challenges, did not hinder our students from writing the annual CXC CSEC examinations. Based on an analysis of the Territory’s performance, for this year, students achieved the following overall results. Out of 993 subject entries, the awards achieved were as follows: 220 Grade Ones; 316 Grade Twos; 205 Grade Threes; 112 Grade Fours; 13 Grade Fives and 127 for the category of ‘Other’. Madame Speaker, ‘Other’ refers to absenteeism, deferrals or ungraded work. An accepted pass indicated by Grades I, II and III,” she said.
She added, “It is interesting to note that not all institutions produced candidates who wrote eight subjects in 2021/2022. The reason for this is that several students wrote a few of the CSEC examinations in the previous year, 2020/2021. Results of examinations written in a year are recorded in that year; no combining of subject passes occurs across years.”
Several subjects received 100% pass rate
De Castro further revealed that there were a number of subjects which received a 100 percent pass rate and others which were above 90 percent.
She said, “There were several subjects for which the pass rate was 100 percent: Agricultural Science; Caribbean History; Economics; English B (Literature); Family and Resource Management; Food, Nutrition & Health; Industrial Technology (Building); Industrial Technology (Mechanical); Office Administration; and Physical Education & Sport.”
She continued, “In addition, those CSEC examinations for which there were pass rates from 90 – 99 percent were: Biology; Chemistry; English A (Language); Information Technology; Integrated Science; Principles of Accounts; Principles of Business; Physics; and Human & Social Biology.”
Pass rate increase in English A and Mathematics
De Castro who is also a Territorial at Large Representative also informed the members of the House of Assembly that this year’s results saw an increase in the overall pass rate of English A and Mathematics.
This was not the same for Industrial Technology which she said was the subject with the least acceptable pass rate.
“A comparison of the English A and Mathematics results showed that the English A pass rate was 96.05 percent which represented an increase of 12.6 percent over 2021. Regarding Mathematics, there was an overall pass rate of 56.45 percent, which also represented an increase of 8.81%, over that of 2021. This year, the subject which resulted in the least acceptable pass rate was Industrial Technology (Electrical) at 28.57 percent,” Minister De Castro stated.