While more students earned grades between A and D in the Bahamas General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) exams compared to those who received grades E and below, fewer of those higher grades by percentage were awarded this year when compared to 2015, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Education yesterday.

Approximately 71 percent of the 24,466 BGCSE grades were A through D, compared to the 29 percent of grades E or below.

An analysis of the "grade outcome" shows that As account for 8.6 percent of grades awarded this year, compared to the 9.19 percent in 2015. In 2015, a total of 24,968 grades were awarded. Similarly, 11.63 percent of grades awarded were Bs this year, compared to the 12.29 percent last year, a decline of 0.66 percent. And 28.80 percent of grades issued were Cs this year, compared to the 28.99 percent in the previous year. But the percentage of Ds and Es awarded this year were up when compared to 2015.

Last year, Ds accounted for 22.11 percent of grades, compared to the 22.18 percent this year, and Es accounted for 12.54 percent last year, compared to the 13.47 percent this year. There was also a small increase in the percentage of Fs and Gs. However, fewer Us were issued when compared to last year - from 3.36 percent in 2015 to 2.76 percent this year.

According to the results released, 574 students achieved a grade C or above in maths, English language and science, a 0.7 percent increase over the 570 students who achieved those grades last year.

In 2014, 588 students received those grades; in 2013, 561; in 2012, 589 students achieved those grades.

"The improvements are indeed encouraging but we still have a long way to go," said Fitzgerald during a press conference at the Ministry of Education. "I will be the first to point out that our system is not perfect and has its fair share of challenges. In fact, there is no education system that I have found that is perfect. But the common denominators in environments where students consistently perform well have been the balance, and exhibited the balance of political will, a bipartisan vision for education, a high level of school leadership [and] excellent teachers, and students and parents."

Vague
The Ministry of Education did not provide the grades achieved for each exam category at both levels, which would indicate how students performed in core subjects such as English language, mathematics and science. Although the national grade average has long been done away with, education officials have provided exam results for each subject year over year. Statistics released by the ministry yesterday, included grade outcomes by gender and the number of candidates sitting each exam.

Fitzgerald was asked for an indication of the grade averages for the core subjects.

"What I can say is that the averages have not changed that much, and I've said before... if you want to talk about averages you will not see a change in averages for a number of years," he said. "As I said, the challenges are deep rooted. These [are] challenges we have been battling for some time."

In total, 903 students received at least a grade C in five or more subjects compared to the 961 students in the previous year, representing a 6.04 percent decrease. In 2014, 922 students achieved this; in 2013, 996 and in 2012, 947 students received those grades. A total of 1,459 students earned a D grade in at least five subjects compared to the 1,534 students in 2015. There were 1,545 students who achieved this in 2014; 1,626 students in 2013 and 1,594 students in 2012.

Fitzgerald said in order to achieve desired results in education it will take political will, resources and "a total commitment by all parents to their children's academic success". In contrast to the BGCSEs, the ministry provided cumulative percentages for the BJC exam results. The percentage of grades achieved between A and D increased by under one percent when compared to last year. Grades between B and F increased this year compared to 2015. Grades A, G and U decreased over last year.

Fitzgerald noted that 64 percent of the grades were between A and D, compared to the 36 percent that were Es and below.

Royston Jones Jr., Guardian Staff Reporter

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