HOME	JUNE 26th, 2004

JUNE 26

A smaller number of students will be entering Secondary schools this year as compared to previous years.

That's the word coming out from Education officials on the island in the wake of the release of the 2004 Common Entrance results.

An estimated fourteen hundred (1400) students who were successful in the exams will receive placements in secondary schools on the island when the new term begins in September. The exams, which was done in May was officially released on Monday by the Ministry of Education.

Kendrina Lewis of the St. Andrew's Methodist School top scored with an average on 131.050 points. Second place was Arlene Hayes of the St. Louis's R.C School, third was Rukiya Thomas of Hermitage Government, fourth Hugh Bullen of the L Esterre Government on the sister isle of Carriacou while the fifth sport went to Joanson Baptiste of Kids Learning Center.

The exams were open to all students who were eleven years old and comprised a multiple-choice component, Social Science, Natural Science, Language Arts and Mathematics.

There was also a written component where candidates wrote a short composition on a given topic and provided solutions to mathematical problems.

A total of 3246 students sat the examination of which 1774 were boys and 1472 being girls. According to Senior Education Officer in the Ministry of Education Byron St. Clair, a number of students did not perform will in subjects such as Reading, Grammar and Mathematics.

St. Clair told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday that there were weak performances by students in Culture, Sport, Commerce and Problem Solving.

He also pointed out that there was a decrease in the number of students assigned to each secondary school due to a reduction in class size (35 per form). This, he said was based on an agreement reached between the Grenada Union of Teachers(GUT) and government.

It was also revealed that all the students who sat the exams on the sister isles of Carriacou and Petit Martinique received places at secondary schools there.