Performance in PEP subjects improves

By Nakinskie Robinson   

 

The outlook for Mathematics is positive as the Ministry of Education on Friday morning announced a second year of improvement for the subject in the Primary Exit Profile.

 

Favourable results were also recorded for the three other subjects assessed under PEP.

 

Education Minister Fayval Williams revealed that 60 per cent of students were at the proficient or highly proficient achievement level in the PEP Exam.

 

Meanwhile, 33 per cent were developing, meaning they demonstrated partial evidence of the required competence for the grade level.

 

Seven per cent achieved the beginning level, meaning limited or no evidence of the required competence was demonstrated. Students within these categories will, respectively, require targeted or intensive academic support at grade 7.

 

Mrs. Williams said her Ministry was able to compare results for 2024, 2023 and 2019 for the first time. 

 

"We could not do that with PEP 2022 because only the Ability Test and four curriculum-based tests were administered then. [In] 2019, only 41 per cent of our students were in the highly proficient and proficient category then. That moved to 57 per cent in 2023 and now in 2024, it's at 60 per cent," she revealed. 

 

Students were also assessed in Language Arts, Science and Social Studies.

 

Minister Williams gave a breakdown of those results:

 

"In Language Arts in 2019, only 55 per cent were in the highly proficient or proficient category. That moved to 60 per cent in 2023 and 67 per cent in 2024. In the Science area in 2019, only 49 per cent were in the highly proficient or proficient category. That jumped to 64 per cent in 2023 and now in 2024 it's at 70 per cent."

 

For social studies, in 2019, only 63 per cent were in the proficient or highly proficient category. That moved to 67 per cent in 2023 and then to 72 per cent this year. 

 

Minister Williams, who was speaking during a Primary Exit Profile press conference on Friday morning, said 34,927 students were registered to sit the PEP exams, with 88 per cent coming from the public school system and the remaining 12 per cent from private institutions.  

 

This is the first year that students will be able to see a breakdown of their performance on assessments across grades 4, 5 and 6.

 

Grade 4 assessments accounted for 10 per cent, grade 5, 20 per cent and grade 6, 70 per cent of the final results.

 

Some 86.7 per cent of students, or 30,302, got placed in one of their seven secondary institutions of choice.

 

Meanwhile, 3,900 students were placed based on proximity to their primary school.

 

Parents and students can access results via dpisonline.com at midday Friday.  

 

 

In the meantime, Minister Williams believes PEP has been achieving its mandate. 

 

"Obviously, as we go along, that achievement level will increase. The suite of tests are administered over three years and so it takes away the really high

stake, one time only testing of the past. I remember that dreaded Common Entrance... If you didn't pass it, you just didn't pass it. So I think the way the exams are structured, it's friendly to the students and acknowledge that learning is acquired over time." 

 

The Education Minister also revealed that students completed 11 assessments over the three-year period for PEP.  

 

But she contended that PEP remains much more manageable when compared with past primary exit assessments, including the Grade Six Achievement Test and its predecessor, Common Entrance. 

 

"We look at it the other way that we're spreading the stress out, if you will, over a three-year period. It allows the students to understand where they are in grade 4 and you see that in grade 5, because once they do the testing for grade 4, we can zero in on the weak areas, the weak points; grade 5, another zeroing in, another intervention to prepare them for grade 6," she asserted.