By Newsday Reporters Thursday, August 20 2009

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SHARING THE NEWS: Kerry-Ann Nelson, a student of Signal Hill Secondary School smiles as she speaks on her cellular phone after collecting her CXC O' L...

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President of the TT Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA) Rouston Job yesterday said there may be a need to rethink how Mathematics is being taught at the nation’s secondary schools. Commenting on the Education Ministry’s assessment that this year’s Mathematics and English results for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams were low, Job said Mathematics was still abstract and many students “shy away” from it. He said some students signed up for maths exams but did not turn up.

Job suggested Mathematics teachers should be concerned and get together with the aim of seeing “where the problems are with a view of looking at methods they can use to make it attractive to students.”

He said English and Mathematics were two of the most important subjects which students must pass. He was surprised that the English results were low since this was an area which usually had “better results”. The ministry’s statistics reveal a 46.7 percent pass rate for Maths and 55.6 percent for English (grades I-III), prompting Chief Education Officer Peter O’Neil to note that remedial programmes in place for these core subjects will be strengthened. English B, or literature, according to the ministry, also had an average 50 percent pass rate.

Although the Education Ministry has taken note of the poor pass rates for the two subjects, many schools yesterday said results overall were satisfactory. Some schools reported gains compared with last year while others said more work will be done to improve results.

Principal of St Francois Girls’ College Patricia McIntosh said 94 percent of 127 students who sat exams got full passes. Forty-two percent of students got eight subjects. McIntosh was quite pleased with the Ordinary Level results saying it was “just a little better” than last year when 92 percent of students got full passes. One student who sat nine subjects got grade one in eight of them. McIntosh said students were “particularly strong in business and science subjects”.

She is considering starting a scholarship class for the students to motivate and nurture those who did “exceedingly well”. McIntosh said the aim is not to boost some at the expense of others. “Our focus is getting our girls out there to pursue law, engineering, medicine, business areas. Anything they want to do.”

Vice-principal/manager of Fatima College Fr Gregory Augustine said his school did better this year with 90 percent full certificates. Students scored in the 90s in English, Physics, Mathematics, and Chemistry.

They gained full scores in Art, while the lowest scores were in English B (literature). Responding to a question about specific areas for improvement he said.

“Our focus is all our students have to do much better. The issue of the boys’ performance that is the focus of the school. Our boys are top performers in the country.”St James Secondary saw a ten percent improvement from last year and according to one source “we are getting there”. There were 155 candidates in the exam and 18 students got seven passes while there was between 75 and 85 percent in subject areas.

Principal Lennard Hinkson of Queen’s Royal College (QRC) said the school’s pass rate was still high but he had observed a drop from 99 percent to an average of 89 percent full certificates this year. “That does not please me at all,” he said.

Tobago secondary schools officials yesterday said preliminary checks of the results were positive. While all nine secondary schools on the island received their results by midday yesterday, not all released them to students. Officials of Scarborough Secondary and Roxborough Composite schools told Newsday they had to separate slips and copy them before distributing them to students today. An official at Bishop’s High School did report a 100 percent pass rate overall. They recorded a 94 percent pass rate for English with 68 out of 120 students receiving a grade one. The Maths pass rate was also high although a percentage was not given.

In South Trinidad, ASJA Boys College principal Alim Ali expressed satisfaction with the overall performances in Maths and English.

“Although the ministry stated there was decline in Maths and English, we are quite satisfied with the results at the college because that has always been one of our strong points. But what we have seen is a decline in geography,” he said. Overall 80 to 85 percent of the students received full certificates. Naparima Girls High School vice principal Fairy Lalla said the school recorded a 98 percent pass rate for all subjects, though she noted this year’s results revealed a “little problem” in Maths.

“In Maths, there seems to be a little problem but the majority of students got the desired results,” she said.