19.2 Per Cent of Students Pass Five Subjects Including Maths and English

There has been a marginal increase in the number of students who passed five Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects, including Mathematics and English, this year.  

Of the 28,654 Jamaican students who sat exams in May/June 2025, only 6,200 earned five passes with the core subjects.  

Some 5,071 students received five passes, including English, while 372 got five passes, including Mathematics.  

The number of students who achieved five passes, including Mathematics and or English, is 11,643.  

Comparing last year’s data to this year, Minister of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon, described it as “somewhat flat” but an improvement, nonetheless.  

“In 2024, 18 per cent of our students would have had five CSECs with Maths and English A –  6,024 students. This year, we have 6,200, so we’ve improved to 19.2 per cent, and as we continue the interventions, we expect that this number will continue to go up in terms of our students getting five or more subjects, including Maths and English,” Dr. Morris Dixon said.  

She was addressing a press conference, held on Friday (August 15) at the Ministry’s Heroes Circle offices in Kingston, where she presented a report on Jamaica’s performance in CSEC and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE). 

Meanwhile, Dr. Morris Dixon said she was not pleased with the performance of students in some subjects, including physics, chemistry and social studies.  

Those subjects received pass rates between 58 and 63 per cent.  

“We know that a part of that problem has to do with the labs, and that is why we have the lab programme. We did an audit of all science labs and we have started a procurement to get equipment for the labs for our science areas and so we think with that, when we equip the labs, and we do some more targeted interventions there, we can work to get those numbers up,” she reasoned.  

Dr. Morris Dixon added that the May/June 2025 sitting was the first year of testing since the social studies syllabus was changed.