A decline in English scores and continued difficulty applying mathematical skills have marked this year’s Barbados Secondary Schools’ Entrance Examination – the 11-Plus – even as overall results remain broadly in line with recent years, Deputy Chief Education Officer Julia Beckles revealed on Monday.

Most students – 97.3 per cent – were successfully allocated to public secondary schools by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), she said, an increase from the 95.1 per cent allocated through the standard process last year. The remaining 75 candidates, accounting for 2.7 per cent of the cohort, were allocated to secondary institutions directly by the Ministry of Education Transformation.

Reviewing the Mathematics paper, Beckles said student scores ranged from zero to a maximum of 100 per cent. The national mean for Mathematics stood at 58.04, reflecting a marginal decline of 2.16 percentage points when compared to the 60.2 per cent recorded in 2025.