BOYS MAKING A COMEBACK IN COMMON ENTRANCE

Boys seem to be narrowing the achievement gap. That is, if this year’s Common Entrance results are anything to go by. In the exam that was held on Friday, June 2, 2006, 35% of the 1812 boys who wrote the exam were successful. This represents a10% increase over the mere 25% of boys who passed last year.

This year, 48% of the 1302 girls sitting the exam passed. This is a slight improvement over last year’s pass rate of 46%. The boys have, therefore, narrowed the gap in the pass rate from 21% to 13%.{{more}}

According to a Ministry of Education release, 2678 of the 2702 students registering for the exam actually wrote it. The overall pass rate was 41.3%, up from 35% in 2005 and 37% in 2004. 1101 students were successful.

Saskia Renton of the St. Mary’s Roman Catholic School was the top student, with an average of 92.78%. Three persons, Kalina Browne and Shaquille Thomas of the St. Mary’s Roman Catholic School and Mbeki Swift of the Marriaqua Government School tied for second place with an average of 91.11%.

The first 10 places were taken by students from the St. Mary’s Roman Catholic School, the Marriaqua Government School, the Kingstown Preparatory School, the Georgetown Government School, the Lodge Village Government School and the Dickson Methodist School.