Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

De­spite wide­spread re­ports on so­cial me­dia that stu­dents were ex­pe­ri­enc­ing dif­fi­cul­ties ac­cess­ing their Caribbean Sec­ondary Ed­u­ca­tion Cer­tifi­cate (CSEC) and Caribbean Ad­vanced Pro­fi­cien­cy Ex­am­i­na­tion (CAPE) re­sults on­line yes­ter­day, both Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath and Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) pres­i­dent Crys­tal Ashe said they had not re­ceived any re­ports of sig­nif­i­cant prob­lems with the sys­tem.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Dowlath said, “There are no re­port­ed is­sues.”

Ashe echoed the min­is­ter’s as­sess­ment, not­ing that the union had not been made aware of any con­cerns by its mem­ber­ship.

“TTUTA takes this op­por­tu­ni­ty to ex­tend best wish­es to all stu­dents who have re­ceived their Caribbean Sec­ondary Ed­u­ca­tion Cer­tifi­cate (CSEC) re­sults,” Ashe said in a state­ment.

He ac­knowl­edged that the re­lease of ex­am­i­na­tion re­sults can be an emo­tion­al and stress­ful ex­pe­ri­ence for stu­dents and their fam­i­lies and en­cour­aged can­di­dates to view their re­sults as on­ly one part of their ed­u­ca­tion­al jour­ney.

“We recog­nise that the re­lease of ex­am­i­na­tion re­sults is a sig­nif­i­cant and, for many stu­dents, an anx­ious mo­ment. We com­mend our stu­dents for the com­mit­ment, per­se­ver­ance and hard work that brought them to this point. We al­so ac­knowl­edge the sup­port pro­vid­ed by par­ents, guardians, teach­ers and all those who have con­tributed to their ed­u­ca­tion­al jour­ney,” he said.

Ashe al­so re­mind­ed stu­dents that ex­am­i­na­tion grades do not de­fine their fu­ture suc­cess.

“To our stu­dents, we wish to re­mind you that your ex­am­i­na­tion re­sults are an im­por­tant part of your jour­ney, but they do not to­tal­ly de­fine your fu­ture. A par­tic­u­lar grade, or even a par­tic­u­lar set of re­sults, does not de­ter­mine the full mea­sure of your abil­i­ties, your po­ten­tial or the con­tri­bu­tion you can make to so­ci­ety.”

He con­grat­u­lat­ed stu­dents who achieved strong re­sults while en­cour­ag­ing those who may have fall­en short of ex­pec­ta­tions not to be­come dis­cour­aged.

Ashe al­so praised teach­ers across the coun­try for their role in prepar­ing stu­dents for the ex­am­i­na­tions.

“TTUTA al­so takes this op­por­tu­ni­ty to com­mend our na­tion’s ed­u­ca­tors for their con­tin­ued ded­i­ca­tion to the teach­ing, prepa­ra­tion and sup­port of our stu­dents. Their con­tri­bu­tion to the de­vel­op­ment of our young peo­ple ex­tends far be­yond the ex­am­i­na­tion room.”

CXC re­ports 72.18% re­gion­al CSEC pass rate

The re­gion­al pass rate for the Caribbean Sec­ondary Ed­u­ca­tion Cer­tifi­cate (CSEC) ex­am­i­na­tions is 72.18 per cent, a slight in­crease from last year’s 71.42 per cent.

Caribbean Ex­am­i­na­tions Coun­cil (CXC) di­rec­tor of op­er­a­tions Dr Nicole Man­ning made the an­nounce­ment dur­ing a me­dia brief­ing in An­guil­la yes­ter­day.

CXC al­so not­ed a high in­crease in ab­sen­teeism, cheat­ing and use of AI.

Speak­ing on stu­dent per­for­mance, Man­ning said 14 ter­ri­to­ries record­ed pass rates be­tween 43 and 77 per cent, above the re­gion­al per­cent­age, while sev­en record­ed rates be­tween 30 and 38 per cent.

In­for­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy (IT) was the top-per­form­ing sub­ject, with an 83 per cent pass rate, fol­lowed by Prin­ci­ples of Busi­ness at 81 per cent, Eng­lish A at 80 per cent, Elec­tron­ic Doc­u­ment Prepa­ra­tion and Man­age­ment (EDPM) at 79 per cent, and Hu­man and So­cial Bi­ol­o­gy at 78 per cent.

Sub­jects record­ing pass rates be­low the re­gion­al av­er­age in­clud­ed Prin­ci­ples of Ac­counts at 72 per cent, Physics at 69 per cent, Chem­istry at 68 per cent, So­cial Stud­ies at 66 per cent and Math­e­mat­ics at 42 per cent.

Math­e­mat­ics record­ed a four-per­cent­age-point im­prove­ment over the pre­vi­ous year.

At the cer­e­mo­ny, CXC reg­is­trar and CEO Dr Wayne Wes­ley of­fi­cial­ly launched the Caribbean Tar­get­ed Ed­u­ca­tion Cer­tifi­cate (CTEC), de­scrib­ing it as a “game-chang­er”.

CTEC us­es ex­ist­ing sub­jects and syl­labus­es but breaks them in­to fo­cused mod­ules that stu­dents can mas­ter, be as­sessed on and re­ceive cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for step-by-step, with­out low­er­ing the stan­dard.

Wes­ley said the CTEC Math­e­mat­ics pi­lot in the May-June 2026 ex­am­i­na­tions was “high­ly suc­cess­ful”, with 2,535 can­di­dates sit­ting Mod­ule 1 across 15 ter­ri­to­ries and 42 cen­tres.

Of those can­di­dates, 88 per cent achieved ac­cept­able grades, while on­ly one can­di­date across the Caribbean re­ceived the low­est grade.

Wes­ley said the re­sults demon­strate that when learn­ing is as­sessed in fo­cused, achiev­able stages, stu­dents “ex­cel”.

He said a mod­ule is not a whole sub­ject and that the full qual­i­fi­ca­tion still re­quires com­ple­tion of every mod­ule at the full stan­dard.

He said CTEC is de­signed to widen ac­cess to cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and al­low learn­ers to earn portable cre­den­tials as they progress, even if their ed­u­ca­tion is in­ter­rupt­ed.