Improvement in CAPE Passes

Minister of Education, Rev. the Hon. Ronald Thwaites, is reporting improvement in the regional pass rate for the 2012 Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE).

He was addressing region one educators at a Back-To-School Conference held Wednesday August 8 at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston.

He said that students across the region continue to do well as the CAPE level, with approximately 89 per cent of entries receiving acceptable grades. Passes for Communication Studies increased to 98 per cent from 95 per cent last year; and Caribbean Studies moved from 84 per cent to just under 96 per cent.

"Based on the CAPE results, it is clear that the best of our students can, and do very well,” the Education Minister said.

He noted that students in many of the new high schools are doing just as well those in the “name brand schools” and that the society needs to stop the class discrimination between schools.

As it relates to the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC), the Education Minister said the regional average for English A declined from 67 per cent to 47 per cent, while Mathematics showed a slight improvement from 35 per cent to 37 per cent.

Rev. Thwaites said the Jamaican results will be available by the end of the week “but the indications are not strong” for the CSEC.