The Primary School Examination results were released today and they give reason for great concern among parents, teachers, administrators and policymakers because clearly something is wrong. The overall results show that a majority of Belizean students are failing to make the grade.
5834 students took the test over two days in April and in May in four subjects: English, Science, Math, and Social Studies. Results released by the Examinations Unit of the Ministry of Education shows that the average score was 211.8 points out of 400 which is about 53%. The bad news is that 49% of the children taking the test got lest than 50% which is what government fixes as the minimum passing grade. The breakdown is as follows:
- The average grade in English was 56.7 points out of a possible 100 which is a slight increase from 55.3 last year.
- In science the average points this year was 52.8 out of 100 which dropped sharply from 67 points last year.
- Students' performance in math also tumbled from 54.9 points out of a 100 last year to 42.4 points this year.
- Social Studies which was held for the first time last year saw a minor drop to 60.4 points out of 100.
Again from close to 6,000 students that took the test, the average student got 211 points out of a possible 400 points, meaning that almost 3,000 students are tonight hanging their heads because they got less than 50% on what was hyped to be the most important test of their lives. Certainly, there is reason for worry, but it's not the end of the world. Examinations Unit Director Yvonne Davis concedes that the small increase in performance on the English paper has been offset by the dismal showing on math and science. Davis says the exam needs to be retooled but stopped short of saying we should throw it out.
Yvonne Davis, Director - Examination Unit
"This year there is some improvement as well as there is decrease in some areas. In English we are seeing a 1.3% increase in English, a.5 decrease in social studies, but a huge decrease in both science and mathematics; about 13% decrease in both math and science and this year."
Keith Swift,
Writing went up this year by a small percentage, what can we take from that, are our children now grasping the English language?
Yvonne Davis,
"What we are noticing is the application of some of the indicators that we have been noticing in the past. We have been seeing from the results that the children need to express themselves in various ways and we are seeing expression, the use of figurative language, and the use of vocabulary that is normally beyond what the average children are capable of using."
"The problem solving was real challenging for the children this year which we found very surprising because we have repeated these concepts and some of the problems that were on the test this year, were actually repeated from past tests. There were about 4 items that were done up in 2001 and 2002 that reappeared on 2004, of course the numbers were different but they were more or less the same problems. For example we have a menu that was given in 2002 and asking the children to calculate the costs of a food choice that one person bought and we asked them to do the very same thing and we found that they didn't do very well on that problem. Also there was the addition of fractions, which is a basic skill that is introduced at the standard 2 level, we this year asked them to add two basic fractions and we found that the children were unable to do that as well."
Keith Swift,
Is this test worth continuing?
Yvonne Davis,
"The exam really is giving us a lot of information and whilst we go back and forth in some of the subject areas, that will continue for a while until we establish what we are looking at in relation to the performance standards. If we discontinue the PSE, we will be left wondering where our teachers are in terms of how they are delivering in the classroom and what our children are actually able to do. So I would not feel that we need to discontinue the PSE but perhaps we need to look at maybe restructuring or perhaps outlining specific topics that will be tested each year."
Jules Vasquez,
If my car which is a 4 cylinder vehicle is only firing on 1 ¾ cylinders, I need to rebuild the engine; I don't need to check what is wrong, I need a complete overhaul. The results of this test, the average is well below 50%, is an indication that we need a massive revamping and rebuilding of our education system. Is it not?
Yvonne Davis,
"Monitoring is one of the key indicators here because when you are able to get your specialists in the system to assist the teachers with particular areas, for example problem solving which has been a problem for us for some time now, if we are able to get people to go into the system and work with teachers in that particular area they will be able to do better at delivering the curriculum topics. I feel that is one of the key areas and there are other things of course that need to tightened up as well."
Jules Vasquez,
But if you can't do fractions in standard 6, something has to be really wrong.
Yvonne Davis,
"Again that speaks back to the performance or the delivery at primary and the only way we'll be able to address that situation is if we increase the monitoring system."
