BELIZE CITY, Mon. June 13, 2016–Kenly Young of St. Andrew Anglican School in San Ignacio Town, Cayo, and Angelina Urbina of La Inmaculada R.C. School in Orange Walk tied for top spot in this year’s Primary School Examination (PSE) with a score of 97.75%, raising the bar above last’s year’s top score of 96.5%.
The student who received the second highest mark on the exam was Marcela Lozano of Bernice Yorke Institute in Belize City.
A total of 7,235 students were tested in four subject areas: English, Mathematics, Social Studies and Science, based on the national primary school curriculum. The grade brackets are A – excellent: 80-100%; B – competent: 70-79%; C – satisfactory: 60-69%; D – adequate: 50-59%; and E – inadequate: 49% and below.
Students overall continued to perform the best in Science. In fact, the most common grade in Science earned by primary school students who sat the exam was an A. However, the poorest performance continues to be seen in Math, for which the average score was 50.6, down a bit from 51.3 last year. In English, 47% of the students scored a satisfactory level (C) or better, about the same as last year.
Students also performed well in Social Studies, for which the most common score was a “B.”
Amandala only received the PSE results today, and we hope to do an update on this story for our weekend edition.
The Ministry of Education cautions that, “the results of the PSE was never intended to be or should never be used to cast blame and point fingers, or attempt to shame teachers, schools and other individuals and groups intimately involved in the teaching-learning process in our system.”