Nevis, West Indies. ?A Non-Tourist-Trap? Blog About Nevis.

Almost 200 Registrants Were Absent

Basseterre, St. Kitts – Nevis
September 03, 2010 (CUOPM)

The Government of St. Kitts and Nevis is to review the current policy of paying the fees of students to fail to show up to write the regional examinations.

Minister of Education, Sen. the Hon. Nigel Carty said he was concerned that students and some parents seem not to appreciate the high cost that Government has to meet to pay the examinations fees.

He reported several instances of students registering for examinations and, either absenting themselves from writing the exams, or, having registered, refuse to complete SBAs and other course assignments.

“For the CAPE results at the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (CFBC), there are 183 cases of absent or ungraded subjects entries. For the CSEC (CXC) 2010 results, there were 115 ungraded entries. That is, in 115 subject entries, students did not submit their SBAs and were therefore ungraded,” said Minister Carty.

He said that the statistics for the examinations also show that a total of 180 entries registered absent from the exams.

“Obviously, money from the SELF programme has been wasted, and this cannot continue indefinitely,” said the Ministry of Education.

He said the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Social Development will shortly be reviewing the SELF Programme and will be making a recommendation to Cabinet concerning the payment of examination fees under SELF.

Under the SELF Programme managed by the Department of Social Development, primary, secondary and College students who meet a set criteria and means test receive uniforms, text books and exercise books free and have their CXC and CAPE examination fees paid for by the State.

“Our teachers in particular have argued that urgent reform is necessary to stop the abuse of textbooks and exam fees,” said Minister Carty.

Related posts:

1. St. Kitts – Nevis Education Minister Reports On CAPE Results
2. St. Kitts – Nevis Records Highest Ever CXC National Pass Rate
3. St. Kitts – Nevis Education Minister Pleased With Results
4. St. Kitts – Nevis Students To Benefit From New Line Of CXC Past Papers
5. St. Kitts – Nevis To Provide Students With Latops

Nevis’ Principal Education Officer – Lornette Queeley Connor

Charlestown, Nevis
September 01, 2010

Principal Education Officer (PEO) in the Ministry of Education on Nevis Mrs. Lornette Queeley Connor, urged the island’s teachers to ready themselves to improve the quality of service they rendered to students. Her advice came on Wednesday while she delivered welcome remarks at the Department of Education’s annual Back to School Opening Ceremony at the Nevis Cultural Centre.

The ceremony which held under the 2010/2011 school year theme of “Building the Future through Quality Education” was attended by hundreds of teachers from across the island as Tropical Storm Fiona passed miles away from Nevis.

“I encourage us all to begin with just a little introspection – how prepared are we to buuild that future? Are we ready to enhance our own professional capabilities? Are we equipped with the necessary tools for constructing success for ourselves and others? Are we ready to present ourselves as school professionals who will create a learning environment that promotes quality student work and well rounded citizens? I hope so.

“Let it be reminded that the quality school teacher will first make the effort to evaluate themselves then teach students how to evaluate their own work. Teachers in a quality school would not nag but they would send out a constant message that almost all work can improve. That almost every single person alive can be a success. The quality teacher should stress that quality takes precedence over quantity,” she said.

Mrs. Queeley Connor told the teachers, that a large volume of work had nothing to do with learning or quality education and reminded them that building the future through quality education would not be as easy as it sounded and it would take some time.

However, if they were to wrestle with today’s competitive world of quality products and services, they had no choice but to push their own goal forward from mere competence to quality.

She underscored the vital role education played in every respect in building the future and said as a result, the quality of service teachers offered and education had become increasingly critical.

“Our children need us now more than ever. Let us resolve then through our combined efforts to build a future that is neat for our children and our children’s children,” she said.

In conclusion, the PEO wished the teachers a productive school year.

Related posts:

1. Nevis Teachers Will Be Prepared For Students’ Return
2. Teachers Told To Give Of Themselves Freely To Students
3. Nevis Students Urged To Prepare For The Future
4. Kindergarten Teachers Receive Learning Materials
5. Premier Parry Addresses Nevis’ Teaching Fraternity

Education Minister Nigel Carty Proides Results

Basseterre, St. Kitts – Nevis
September 01, 2010 (CUOPM)

An increasing number of secondary school leavers in St. Kitts and Nevis are pursuing post secondary education at the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (CFBC) in St. Kitts and the Sixth Form of the Charlestown Secondary School in Nevis.

According to Federal Minister of Education, Sen. the Hon. Nigel Carty, 456 students registered at the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (CFBC) for the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) compared to 313 in 2008 and 372 in 2009 and 143 students registered for CAPE at the Sixth Form of the Charlestown Secondary School compared to 138 in 2009 and 107 in 2008.

“This is a good development as it shows that an increasing number of our secondary school leavers are taking the opportunity to pursue post-secondary education at our national college, with the obvious aspiration of some day moving on to university,” said Minister Carty in a national broadcast.

CAPE is taken by students in the Division of Arts, Sciences and General Studies at the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College, and at the Sixth Form of the Charlestown Secondary School.

Students take CAPE at Unit 1 and Unit 2 in selected subject areas. Most Unit 1 courses are taken by Year One students while Unit 2 courses are taken at Year Two.

In his address, Minister Carty, who was given the education portfolio in February this year, said in the 2010 exams, there were 1,417 registered subject entries.

“Of the 1417 registered subject entries, 1234 returned results with 991 passes,” said Minister Carty.

This he said is an overall pass rate so far of 80.30 percent, however, an official query has been made to CXC with respect to the results for Literature in English 1 for which no results have been received.

Minister Carty said the 80.30 percent pass rate, although reasonably satisfactory, is down from 2009 when an 82.38 percent pass rate was obtained. “We await the result of the query in order to compute the final pass rate,” he said.

The Minister of Education, reported fairly high pass rates of over 80 percent returned for Accounting 1, Art & Design 1&2, Biology 2, Caribbean Studies, Chemistry 1&2, Communication Studies, Computer Science 1 & 2, Environmental Science 1&2, French 1&2, Geography 2, Information Technology 2, Law 2, Literatures in English 2, Management of Business 2, Pure Mathematics 2, Physics 2, Sociology 1 and Spanish 1.

“Twelve of these subjects had 100 percent passes,” said Minister Carty, who commended all the lecturers for their hard work.

“Special mention must be made of subjects such as Economics, Management of Business and Sociology in which there is always a high enrollment sometimes over 100 students, which are able to return pass rates of over 75 percent. Success in Law Unit 1 was borderline with a pass rate of 52.8 percent. Pure Mathematics 1, Information Technology 1 and Applied Mathematics, by their less than satisfactory pass rates, are being highlighted here as areas of weakness that must be worked on for improvement,” said Minister Carty.

In relation to the Sixth Form students at the Charlestown Secondary School, total of 143 candidates were registered for 573 subject entries.

“The number of candidates showed the increasing trend as mentioned earlier for the CFBC with 107 in 2008, and 138 in 2009. The average pass rate stands at 82.8 % compared with 86.1 % in 2009.

“The majority of the subjects returned pass rates of over 80 percent, with ten subject areas attaining 100 percent passes. However, Pure Mathematics 1, Communication Studies 1, Physics 2, Geography 1 and Management of Business 1 achieved pass rates below or at 50 percent,” said Minister Carty.

He used the opportunity to congratulate the students and lecturers at the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (CFBC) and the Sixth Form of the Charlestown Secondary School for their success and good work.

“I commend the parents of the students for their support, and I encourage all parents to continue to provide the kind of home environment to enable our youth to continue to develop their full potential,” said the Minister of Education.

Related posts:

1. St. Kitts – Nevis Education Minister Pleased With Results
2. St. Kitts – Nevis Records Highest Ever CXC National Pass Rate
3. Nevis’ Gingerland High School Tops The Rest
4. Premier Reports On Nevis’ Education Progress
5. Nevis Policy Approach To Education Development