Education minister announces external exam results

Statement by Minister of Education Nalton Brangman

Good afternoon,

I am pleased to be here today with the Commissioner of Education Dr. Edmond Heatley to share graduation results and the performance of our students on external examinations. You will recall that we are the only public school system that requires all of our students to sit external examinations.

The 2012/2013 school year marked the third year of administering Cambridge International Examinations across the primary, middle and senior levels of the Bermuda Public School System (BPSS) in English, Mathematics and Science. 

Before I share the highlights and the Commissioner provides some of the detail behind the results, I remind you of the following performance measures we published in the Government Budget Book as specific target outcomes for the BPSS. These were taken from the Blueprint for Reform in Education and we have committed to meet them by 2015. We have targeted that:

90% of students will graduate with a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 2.0 which equates to 70% or better

80% of examinees will achieve the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE).

80% of examinees will achieve a score at or above three on a six point Cambridge scale in Primary Six Checkpoint.

80% of examinees will achieve a score at or above three on a six point Cambridge scale in Middle Three Checkpoint

Graduation

The BPSS exceeded the performance indicator of 90% of students graduating with a grade point average of 2.0 or the equivalent of 70% or better:

96% of the Senior Year 4 Cohort (227 students) graduated with a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 2.0 (70%) or better, a 2% increase over 2011/2012

88% of the original Senior Year 1 Cohort (247 students who started senior school in 2009) graduated with a GPA of 2.0 or better

217 students graduated with the Bermuda School Certificate (BSC). 

94 Males

123 Females

20 students graduated with honours a 3.2 (82%) or above GPA representing 9% of the S4 Cohort

3 Males

17 Females

International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE)

The BPSS exceeded the performance indicator of 80% of examinees achieving the IGCSE:

91% or 1,090 of 1,204 scores reported attained passing grades of A–G; a 2% increase over 2011/2012 results

28% or 336 of 1,204 scores reported attained passing grades of A–C, the same percentage as in 2011/2012

78 scores were reported by middle school students representing 68% (53) attaining passing grades of A–G and 41% (32) attaining grades of A–C

It should also be noted that additional external examinations in a total of nine subjects were taken from other external boards:

Cambridge International has a 6 point scale for the reporting of checkpoint results. While Cambridge considers a score of 2 as students having “a basic understanding of curriculum content and would benefit from more focus on some areas of the curriculum”, the BPSS has set a target that 80% of students will achieve a target of 3 or above.

Cambridge Checkpoint: (Middle School)

The BPSS did not exceed the performance indicator of 80% of examinees achieving a score at or above 3 on a 6 point scale in Middle Three.

23% of examinees achieved a 3 or above in English – 61% achieved a 2 or above

27% of examinees achieved a 3 or above in Mathematics – 57% achieved a 2 or above

49% achieved a 3 or above in Science – 86% achieved a 2 or above

This represents an overall increase of 15% at level 3 and above from 2011–12

This gives us an overall status of 86% recorded at level 2 and above – according to Cambridge, 86% of our middle school students have “a basic understanding of curriculum content and would benefit from more focus on some areas of the curriculum” - Cambridge

Cambridge Primary Checkpoint: (Primary School)

The BPSS did not exceed the performance indicator of 80% of examinees achieving a score at or above 3 on a 6 point scale in Primary 6 (P3).

 61% of examinees achieved a 3 or above in English – 85% achieved a 2 or above

45% of examinees achieved a 3 or above in Mathematics – 61% achieved a 2 or above

62% achieved a 3 or above in Science – 86% achieved a 2 or above

Here are the takeaways I want to leave with you:

Bermuda is the only public school system that requires all students to sit the IGCSE

Graduation Results – We exceeded the performance target of 90% of students achieving a GPA the equivalent of 70% or better.

IGCSE Results – We exceeded our target of 80% of students achieving an IGCSE but have work to do in order to raise the percentage of students achieving A – C

We have students at the middle school and senior year 1 level that can be accelerated having already passed their IGCSE with A-C grades

The Cambridge Checkpoint examination at the P6 and M3 level is used as an indicator of student performance as they progress through the system towards their ultimate goal of sitting the IGCSE at the S2 level.

Cambridge says that a 2 represents “a basic understanding of curriculum content and would benefit from more focus on some areas of the curriculum” - however, we have set a target of 3 as the benchmark for our students

Cambridge Checkpoint (M3) – We did not exceed our performance target

Cambridge Checkpoint (P6) – We did not exceed our performance target