Pass rates improved across all four subject areas of the 2026 National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA), with Mathematics recording the most significant gains, according to results presented by Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) Director of Operations Dr Nicole Manning on Friday.
Presenting the subject performance data during the announcement ceremony at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Manning said the percentage of candidates attaining 50 per cent and above in English had increased, along with the number of students earning full marks.
“We did have this percentage increase in terms of the overall performance for English, with a percentage of candidates earning 50 per cent and above moved from 69.25 per cent to 73.08 per cent. I must also note that for English, we had a sharp increase in the number of candidates receiving full marks, and we’ve had no candidate receiving zero,” she said.
Social Studies also recorded an improvement, with the proportion of candidates scoring 50 per cent and above rising from 64.77 per cent to 65.28 per cent. The number of students achieving full marks increased significantly from 53 to 110, while no candidate received a zero score.
In Science, the percentage of candidates obtaining 50 per cent and above moved from 63.70 per cent to 65.38 per cent. Full scores nearly doubled, rising from 227 candidates in 2025 to 417 in 2026, with no candidates receiving zero.
Mathematics recorded the greatest improvement of the four subjects.
“This is where we saw the candidates moving from 55.51 per cent — percentage of candidates earning 50 per cent and above — to 59.8 per cent. This speaks volumes not only at this stage, but also for what we know we will see in five years’ time,” Manning said.
She described the results as evidence that educational interventions were yielding positive outcomes. The number of pupils obtaining full marks in Mathematics increased from 472 to 627, while the number of zero scores fell to its lowest level in five years.
Manning also highlighted continued improvement in overall mean scores across the four subjects and noted that female candidates outperformed male candidates in each area.
She said the year-on-year gains demonstrated that interventions being implemented within the education system are having a measurable impact on student performance.
