Caribbean Examinations Council
Caribbean Examinations Council
Caribbean Examinations Council
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The <strong>Caribbean</strong> Examiner<br />
EXAMINATIONS<br />
Significant Increase in CCSLC Population<br />
Subject entries for the <strong>Caribbean</strong> Certificate<br />
of Secondary Level Competence (CCSLC)<br />
have passed the 60-thousand mark in this the<br />
third sitting of the examination. In fact, subject<br />
entries for 2009 tripled when compared<br />
with entries for 2008. This year 60 393 subject<br />
entries were received, compared with 19 048<br />
entries last year. Candidate entries have also<br />
grown at almost 300 percent this year. This year<br />
21 563 candidates wrote the examination compared<br />
with 7 839 candidates in 2008 and 2 669<br />
in 2007, the first year the examination was offered.<br />
Mathematics has overtaken English as the<br />
subject attracting the most entries. This year,<br />
17 847 entries were submitted for Mathematics<br />
compared with 5 903 entries last year. Some<br />
17 215 entries were submitted for English this<br />
year compared with 5 922 last year. There was<br />
an almost four-fold growth in entries for Social<br />
Studies and Integrated Science. For Social Studies<br />
there were 12 353 entries this year, compared<br />
with 3 367 entries last year, while for Integrated<br />
Science 10 455 entries were received this year<br />
compared with 2 807 entries last year. Entries<br />
for Spanish, though relatively small, doubled<br />
this year with 2 143 compared with 831 entries<br />
in 2008. The entries for French improved slightly<br />
from 226 last year to 380 this year.<br />
Performance<br />
The overall performance of students<br />
declined this year. This year 54 percent of the<br />
entries received acceptable grades which are<br />
Mastery and Competent, with 6.21 percent<br />
achieving Mastery and 47.87 achieving<br />
Competent. This compared with an overall<br />
performance of 61 percent of the entries<br />
achieving acceptable grades last year. Last year,<br />
10.58 percent of entries achieved Mastery, while<br />
50.60 percent achieved Competent.<br />
Performance improved in French,<br />
Integrated Science and Spanish and declined<br />
in English, Mathematics and Social Studies. For<br />
French overall performance jumped from 45<br />
percent in 2008 to 80 percent this year, with 13.9<br />
percent of entries achieving Mastery and 66.2<br />
percent achieving Competent. Performance in<br />
Integrated Science improved from 50 percent<br />
last year to 51 percent this year, while for Spanish<br />
there was a 10 percentage improvement in<br />
performance. Forty-eight percent of the entries<br />
achieved acceptable grades this year compared<br />
with 38 percent last year. Performance in<br />
English dropped from 70 percent in 2008 to 59<br />
percent this year. Also significant was the drop<br />
in the percentage of students achieving Mastery,<br />
from 15 percent last year to seven percent this<br />
year. For Mathematics, performance fell from<br />
54 percent in 2008 to 46 percent this year and<br />
for Social Studies there was an eight percent<br />
decline; from 70 percent in 2008 to 62 percent<br />
this year.<br />
More Territories on Board<br />
Eleven Participating Territories submitted<br />
candidates for the CCSLC this year, five more<br />
than in 2008. The new territories offering candidates<br />
this year are British Virgin Islands, Cayman<br />
Islands, Dominica, Montserrat and Saba.<br />
Jamaica continues to be the largest subscriber<br />
to the examination with 16 247 candidates, followed<br />
by St Vincent and the Grenadines with 1<br />
651, Dominica 1 463, St Kitts/Nevis 1 002 and<br />
Antigua and Barbuda 453 candidates.<br />
40 OCTOBER 2009 www.cxc.org
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