There is a growing concern surrounding the level of absenteeism in the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) and Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations with thousands not taking the tests after registering.
Director of operations at the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) Dr Nicole Manning yesterday highlighted the issue during the ceremony for the official release of the CXC 2026 May-June Regional Examination Results in Anguilla.
She revealed that while absenteeism was dropping, about 3 534 candidates at the CAPE level were absent from the examination this year.
Even more worrisome for the region should be the absenteeism at the CSEC level, Manning stated.
“For CSEC, it’s even more worrying, 32 403 candidates are not turning up for exams. This is something that the education system across the region has to be concerned about. It is something that the Caribbean Examinations Council is concerned about, and we are working very hard to encourage our candidates to turn up. We are encouraging our educators to encourage these students to turn up,” she said.
Manning revealed that a survey conducted indicated that candidates felt unprepared and opted not to attend the examination.
Even in the face of that Anguilla received the top performance for the CAPE examinations and also had outstanding performances across various subject areas in CSEC.
Manning noted that CAPE saw an increase in both the subject and candidate entries this year, with CSEC seeing a reduction in the number of candidate entries, but an increase in the subject entries. Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence (CCSLC) saw a reduction in both.
Additionally she reported that the regional percentage of acceptable grades for CAPE increased with 93.52 per cent of overall candidates receiving acceptable grades.
Top performing subjects
The results for the five top performing subjects for CAPE were revealed with Caribbean studies receiving a regional percentage of 98 per cent, information technology had 95 per cent and 99 per cent for units one and two, environmental science units one and two had 97 per cent and 96 per cent, respectively, physics unit one and two showed a regional percentage of 97 per cent and 98 per cent, respectively, with entrepreneurship receiving a regional percentage of 94.
CAPE subjects that fell below top regional performance included biology, maths, accounting, chemistry and social studies which Manning said all took a hit this year.
CSEC saw a slight increase from last year receiving an overall performance of 72.18 per cent.
The top subjects included information technology with a regional percentage of 83 per cent, principles of business, at 81 per cent, English A at 80 per cent, electronic document preparation and management a 79 per cent and human and social biology a regional percentage of 78 per cent.
CSEC subjects that had a low performance included principles of business, physics, and chemistry.
Manning said social studies took a hit this year with 68 per cent, while maths had a slight four per cent increase from last year with 42 per cent. (AJ)
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