GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC—President Irfaan Ali says Caribbean students’ poor mathematics performance concerns regional leaders and needs to be fully ventilated.
The Barbados-based Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) reported last month that only 36 percent of students across the region received passing grades for mathematics at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC), a seven-percentage-point decrease compared to last year.
CXC’s Director of Operations, Dr Nicole Manning, emphasized the need for improvement in each territory.
Addressing the commissioning of the new Yarrowkabra Secondary School, President Ali said regional leaders would discuss the matter, even suggesting that declining grades in mathematics might be due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
“The issue of mathematics has now captured the attention of every head of state and prime minister in the region, and it is now an agenda for the Heads of Government in CARICOM. That is to tell you the issues and challenges we face,” Ali told the ceremony.
He said Barbados’ Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, had recently told him that she intended to take the maths issue to the next CARICOM summit slated for February 2025 in Bridgetown because she believed that the region was in a crisis in mathematics.
“It is not a Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad, or Guyana issue. It has now become a collective issue that we must address, and here in Guyana, we have
to be innovative,” Ali said.
According to the CXC results, Guyana recorded a CSEC Mathematics pass rate of 31 percent this year, compared to 34 percent last year.
Ali wondered whether the declining success rate was linked to the more than two-year COVID-19 pandemic.
“Now, also COVID, mathematics required more direct contact, groups, analytics, teachers-to-student relationships, and teaching time. Did COVID itself have a more significant impact on student’s performance in mathematics than in other subject areas? You can read and follow in different subject areas, but in mathematics, you need to have a more problem-solving approach.
“You have to do formulas, understand formulas, understand analytics. That can also be an offshoot of the problem of COVID,” he said, adding that other reasons for Guyana’s declining math performance might be the effectiveness of teaching delivery, children shying
away from the problem-solving mode of mathematics and fear of the subject.
Ali said he had asked Education Minister Priya Manickchand to conduct an introspection and ascertain what globally available tools could be used to improve maths performance before next year’s CARICOM discussion.
“We’re investing in the digitization of education, the digitization of our textbooks, the digitization of our teaching material, the digitization of our learning material, digitization of our delivery,” he said.
The Yarrowkabra Secondary School serves 1,019 students from several villages along the Soesdyke/Linden Highway. The GUY$790 million l(One Guyana dollar = 0.004 cents) learning facility features 11 departments, including entrepreneurial, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics), and TVET skills, and has a dedicated cohort of 65 teachers.
Ali said the infrastructure is only one component of the government’s plan to ensure every child has access to world-class education.
“We can have the best facilities, but if we also do not invest in human resources that will help this facility to manifest the type of results that you’re investing for, then you will have a mismatch,” he said.
He reiterated the government’s goal of achieving universal secondary education, adding that this involves a focus on digitizing education to address challenges in subjects like mathematics.
“We further believe that universal access to secondary education should not be considered optional. It is an indispensable right for exercise. Secondary education is not merely a privilege. It is a fundamental entitlement that must be extended to all.”
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