MONTEGO BAY, St James — University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) President Dr Kevin Brown has raised an alarm over what he described as an emerging crisis, warning that only 20 per cent of students who sit Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations each year achieve the minimum five passes required for entry into most tertiary institutions.

“We have a situation where 30,000 high schoolers take CSEC. Only 6,000 get five passes, with maths and english included,” Brown said as he delivered the welcome address Wednesday during the launch of UTech’s third Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Summer Camp at the university’s western Campus in Montego Bay.

He said these low pass rates have created intense competition among Jamaica’s approximately 16 tertiary institutions to draw from a very limited pool of qualified students.