According to the Ministry of Education (MoE), 11,015 students passed the Secondary Entrance Assessment out of the 18,797 who wrote mathematics, creative writing and language arts.
Close to 400 of those students scored above 90 per cent while 2,547 students ranked below 30 per cent.
Last year, 5,306 students scored less than 30 per cent among the 19,079 who wrote the exam. That same year, 7,071 pupils obtained SEA success, marking a 37.06 per cent pass rate. In 2021, 10,259 of 19,544 students passed.
The mean Mathematics score for 2023 stood at 50.4, creative writing at 53.4 and language arts at 61.6.
The Ministry said: “These mean scores in 2023, when compared to 2022, show a marked improvement in the performance of students. In 2022, the mean Mathematics score was 41.941. Similarly, the mean English Language Arts Writing score was 44.339 and the mean English Language Arts score was 44.397.”
According to Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, “The improvement in student performance at SEA 2023 was expected, due to the physical return of students to the classroom, and the interventions of the Ministry in addressing learning loss through the implementation of the Remedial Education Programme in 80 primary schools.
“This programme includes initiatives such as the After School Support Education Programme (ASSEP), assignment of dedicated School Social Workers, Guidance Officers, Special Education Officers, and Learning Support Assistants. While the results show that these efforts are beginning to bear fruit, these initiatives must be sustained consistently over the next five years to effectively mitigate the effects of learning loss.”