Minister of Education, Science and Technology Jerome Fitzgerald has revealed that the government has invested in a software system costing $5 million to track every student from kindergarten to grade 12. The minister told Guardian Business the software will contribute to greater accountability in the education system and will be implemented over the next three years, starting this year. It was one piece of technology and an example of the policy changes Fitzgerald said will contribute to the long-term goal of improving the nation's education system and national examination scores.

The education minister also said that in 2014 the government made it a mandatory policy for all students to take national examinations, particularly the Bahamas Junior Certificate (BJC). Prior to this, students were not required to take these exams.

The new software will also ensure that all students take the required examinations. Last year, Fitzgerald said 6,521 candidates registered to sit the BGCSE exams, a decrease compared to the 6,789 candidates registered in 2014. Regarding the BJCs, approximately 10,570 candidates registered to sit the exams.

The minister insisted the nation's examinations scores continue to show slight improvements in key areas such as mathematics and English.

Statistics released by the Ministry of Education last year revealed that student performance improved in less than half of the 27 Bahamas General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) exam categories, compared to 2014, but students continued to average Ds and Es, respectively, in English language and mathematics.

"Over the last four years, we have really taken great pains to set the foundation for steady improvement in our education output, results and the level of education that kids leave school with," said Fitzgerald.

"We have seen over the last two years, gradual improvements with our national examinations, including a big increase in the amount of students that take exams now," said Fitzgerald.

"We have now made it mandatory as a policy. So we weren't really getting the true reflection of what all students' performances were, particularly [in the] BJC. In 2014, it was made mandatory. You have a lot of kids that did not take one BJC," he said.

"We had a slight improvement in 2014; last year we had a big improvement. This year it is going to be even bigger. You now need to have four BJCs to graduate. We want to asses where kids are at [in] grade nine," Fitzgerald added.

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