The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

EDUCATION Minister Glenys Hanna Martin admitted she agrees with observers who feel that “we have a long way to go in education” after the recent release of the BJC and BGCSE statistics.

The minister added that the BGCSE and BJC exams reflect “something”, but the fundamental reflection she believed requires their “intense scrutiny” and attention and that is what officials are aiming to do.

The statistics have been met with public disappointment as well as observers regarding it as unsatisfactory.

While education director Marcellus Taylor said there was a 15 percent increase in the number of BGCSE candidates who received a C or higher in five or more subjects this year, an analysis shows only 12.9 percent of the 4,906 candidates fell into this category.

There was also a 4.68 percent decrease in the number of candidates who sat the exam this year.

As a result of the decrease in candidates, the number of awarded grades decreased by comparison to last year.

Ms Hanna Martin gave her opinions on improvement in education yesterday at Thelma Gibson Primary School — one of the stops on her tour of selected public schools on the first day back to school.

“My view is we have a long way to go — that’s my view. We have a long way to go in education and in catching up. The BGCSE and BJC exams reflect something, but the fundamental reflection I believe requires our intense scrutiny, intense attention and that is what we’re aiming to do. Not every child is going to do a BGCSE, have ten BGSCEs – that’s the reality. In fact, not many of us here will have that, but they will have their unique talents and abilities,” the Englerston MP told reporters.

“We want to ensure that they have literacy and numeracy as a fundamental and then from there as a staging ground we want to ensure that they are able to develop their full potential. “Even special needs children, they don’t do BGCSEs. We want them to be all that they can be, so that is the objective. Not necessarily to create a cookie cutter of a student, but to be able to create the appropriate environment for our young people to thrive, to succeed and to be able to go out there in the world when the time comes to manage themselves and to do well and to live good lives.”

Speaking directly to the backlash about the exam results, particularly BJCs, she acknowledged people’s feelings of unmet expectations as “legitimate observations” but elaborated on measuring achievement.

“I agree with everyone that we have a long way to go in education. Every person in this country has a vested interest in education and if you have expectations and you feel as if these results do not meet those expectations – those are legitimate observations. For myself, my observation of the results is that we have a long way to go. That is what I say – we have a long way to go, but what I would say, however, is we must ensure when we measure attainment that we do not get stuck on the BGCSE or even the BJC exams,” she told reporters.

“They’re important and where students can attain they will, but we have a lot of children that are going to excel in other areas like technical and vocational. They will excel in the arts. We want to ensure that our children have literacy and numeracy and that they meet the minimum requirement to graduate from high school – that’s the objective. And so I say to the critics we have a long way to go, that’s what my response is to them.”

As it relates to the BJC test results, Mr Taylor said last week there was an increase in the total number of grades and candidates.

“This year 9,571 candidates from 113 centres were registered to sit the examination. Fifty-one were government schools while 62 centres were independent or private.

“The total candidature represents an increase of 0.23 percent when compared to 2021, when 9549 candidates from a total of 112 centres. The total number of grades was 35,340 when compared to 2021. Which was 34,62. This represents an increase of 2.07 percent.”

The total number of grades awarded at A-D increased significantly, while the E-U grades decreased which serves as an indication of an improved performance, it was noted.