Regional CSEC Mathematics pass rate rises to 42 per cent, English holds at 80 per cent

More students across the Caribbean passed Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Mathematics this year, with the regional pass rate increasing to 42 per cent, up four percentage points from last year.

English maintained a strong 80 per cent pass rate.

Meanwhile, Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) recorded high pass rates in Caribbean Studies and Communication Studies, at 98 per cent and 93 per cent, respectively.

The data was released on Tuesday by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) on the performance of students in the May/June 2026 exams.

Some 42 per cent of students received a passing grade for CSEC mathematics. This represents an increase of four per cent when compared with last year.

Meanwhile, 80 per cent of students received a passing grade in CSEC English; ten territories performed above the regional average, while 11 performed below average.

While noting the slight improvement in mathematics, CXC director of operations, Dr Nicole Manning, who presented the results in a ceremony hosted in Anguilla today, said it is still progress.

“Any improvement in math is a good improvement, so it's important for us to be happy about that…improvement is improvement,” she said.

Pass rates for other CSEC subjects:

• Information Technology – 83 per cent

• Principles of Business – 81 per cent

• Electronic Document Preparation Management – 79 per cent

• Human and Social Biology – 78 per cent

• Principles of Accounts – 72 per cent

• Chemistry – 68 per cent

• Physics – 69 per cent

• Social Studies – 66 per cent

More than 118,000 students sat CSEC exams across the region this year.

CAPE PERFORMANCE

In CAPE, there were high pass rates in the core subjects of Caribbean Studies and Communication Studies.

Some 98 per cent of students who sat the Caribbean Studies examination received passing grades, with 10 territories pass rates being above average. While 93 per cent of students who sat Communication Studies earned grades one to five.

Over 26,000 students sat the May/June 2026 CAPE.

Here's how students performed in other CAPE subjects:

• Information Technology Unit 1 – 95 per cent

• Information Technology Unit 2 – 99 per cent

• Environmental science- Unit 1 – 97 per cent

• Environmental Science Unit 2 – 96 per cent

• Physics Unit 1 – 97 per cent

• Physics Unit 2 – 98 per cent

• Biology Unit 1 – 93 per cent

• Biology Unit 2 – 95 per cent

• Chemistry Unit 1 – 93 per cent

• Chemistry Unit 2 – 93 per cent

• Pure Mathematics Unit 1 – 90 per cent

• Pure Mathematics Unit 2 – 95 per cent

• Entrepreneurship Unit 1 – 95 per cent

• Entrepreneurship Unit 2 – 95 per cent

The CXC results will be released to students on Tuesday.

- Sashana Small

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