BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):
WHILE SATISFIED with an overall improved performance in this year's Secondary School Entrance Examination, Minister of Education Anthony Wood is concerned about performance in the critical thinking and problem-solving aspects of the examination.
The national average in the mathematics component of the examination, which is used to determine the allocation of primary school students to the 23 government secondary schools, was 55.4 per cent, up from last year's 50.5 per cent.
An improvement was also recorded in the English paper with the national average moving up from 47.9 in 2005 to 51.7 this year, but Wood said he was still concerned that too many students scored poorly in the critical thinking and problem-solving section of the Mathematics paper and in the comprehension section of the English paper.
In English, 89 of the 3,594 students taking the examination scored over 90 per cent, 396 scored between 80 and 89 per cent, 1,491 between 50 and 79 per cent, and 837 between 30 and 49 per cent, while 781 scored less than 30 per cent.
In the mathematics paper, 310 students scored over 90 per cent, 453 between 80 and 89 per cent, 1, 320 between 50 and 79 per cent, 745 between 30 and 49 per cent and 766 less than 30 per cent. The top score in mathematics was 100 per cent, while it was 97 per cent for English.
The minister said an initial analysis of the results showed that measures which the ministry had previously implemented to improve students' performance were working, but there was clear evidence that some new strategies had to be devised to improve deficiencies in critical thinking and problem-solving.
"The ministry will be internalising the results in the various sections with a view of fashioning the appropriate responses. Some of the strategies that the ministry would have put in place in previous years would need some more time to work and, of course, we would be redefining those strategies so as to accelerate the rate at which we get results," Wood said.
