THE EDITOR, Sir:
WE WRITE regarding the article "CXC Results: Total Disaster" by Dr. Ralph Thompson printed in The Gleaner on Friday October 3, 2003.
In table II of the article, Ardenne High School is shown with a pass rate of 58.86 per cent for CXC Mathematics, calculated using 176 passes from a cohort of 299. Though we understand that the aim was to avoid communicating "misleading statistics", the 58.86 per cent does just this for the following reasons:
The grade II cohort sitting CXC examinations this year was actually 312 rather than the 299 printed.
Ardenne High School enters all its students for CXC Mathematics and English Language, rather than a pre-selected number from the cohort.
The only students who are not entered for CXC Mathematics from the grade 11 cohort are those who were participating in the GCE A/O Additional Mathematics programme. These students sit the CXC Mathematics examination in grade 10 and the Add Math examination in grade 11. The majority of these students obtain grade 1 at the grade 10 level. Their inclusion in the cohort count for their grade 11 year, when they are not sitting CXC Mathematics examination. Without the inclusion of the CXC Mathematics pass obtained in the previous year, would result in misleading statistics.
Ardenne High School has stopped allowing its students to sit the GCE Add Math Examination, in favour of having them do GCE Advanced Subsidiary Mathematics as a first unit in the Advanced Level programme. As a result, no grade 10 students sat the CXC mathematics examination this year, accounting for the reduced number of students sitting the examination.
In order to reflect the true performance of the students, one of two methods should have been used in the calculation:
The number of students that actually sat the examination for the academic year (278) could be used instead of the cohort number in the calculation, resulting in percentage passes of 63.31 per cent.
The number of passes could be changed, to include those in the cohort that sat the examination in grade 10 and passed (29 students), to produce a pass rate of 65.71 per cent, that is 205 (176 plus 29) students of a total 312.
The pass rate printed in The Gleaner, has been causing concern among our stakeholders.
I am, etc.,
MERLENE BINGHAM (Mrs.)
Acting Principal
