Mixed emotions over examination results out west
Published:Saturday | June 21, 2025 | 12:10 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
Western Bureau:
Yesterday’s release of this year’s Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examination results has led to mixed emotions at schools in western Jamaica as, while some educators were jubilant, others could not hide their disappointment.
Kay-Esther Malcolm, the principal of Catherine Hall Primary and Infant School in Montego Bay, St James, was quite ecstatic when she spoke to The Gleaner, praising her students for living up to the school’s tradition of consistently attaining excellence.
“Catherine Hall Primary has been doing well over the years, and we have a lot of excitement for this year’s results, as we have 127 students on Pathway One, 24 students on Pathway Two, and 10 students on Pathway Three. The performance rate is about 93 per cent, and we count that as a great success, where our children will succeed if they continue to do well,” said Malcolm.
The three performance pathways used in the PEP examination determine the students’ level of competence. The first pathway is for students who perform satisfactorily, the second pathway is for students with some form of delayed learning, and the third pathway is for students with special needs.
While Malcolm and her students and teachers celebrated on Friday, Susan Davis, the principal of Sudbury Primary School in Orange district, St James, said her school’s performance this year was weaker than last year.
BETTER PERFORMANCE LAST YEAR
“To tell you the truth, I am a little bit disappointed, because last year’s results were much better than this year’s results, but I am grateful. This year’s results are about 50-50, whereas last year it was a 75 per cent performance rate,” said Davis.
“The good thing about this year is that we do not have a lot of students at the beginning level compared to last year, especially in science, where they did exceptionally well. About 81 per cent of our students are not at the beginning level, and that is a plus for me,” added Davis.
The educators gave their reviews of the PEP examination hours after Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon, minister of education, skills, youth and information, revealed that nearly 90 per cent of students who sat the exam were placed at one of their preferred schools. Of the 33,462 students registered across 964 institutions, 89.5 per cent were placed in one of their seven school choices.
In the meantime, data from the Ministry of Education’s Region Four, which includes St James, Hanover, and Westmoreland, indicated that 62.2 per cent of the students who sat the mathematics, 68.9 per cent of those who sat the science, 71.1 per cent who sat social studies, and 67.7 per cent of those who sat language arts, were deemed as proficient or highly proficient.
Dr Michelle Pinnock, the regional director at the Ministry of Education’s Region Four, told The Gleaner that 19 out of 37 schools in the region, which were previously deemed unsatisfactory by the National Education Inspectorate (NEI), have shown signs of improvement.
“For those schools, we went in and worked specifically with them. Of the 37 schools, we have 19 of them not having anybody at the beginning level, so we are seeing improvement there,” said Pinnock. “Special mention must go to Cain Curran Primary School, in Westmoreland, a school that was deemed unsatisfactory by NEI. That school did exceptionally well, getting 100 per cent proficient scores in mathematics, social studies, and science.”