The Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment (CPEA) was introduced in place of the National Common Entrance Examination (CEE) for the first time in 2012.
The CPEA is a measure of the key skills required by students exiting the primary school system. It involves continuous assessment of students’ performance throughout Grades 5 and 6. Students are therefore assessed for formative, summative and diagnostic purposes. The CPEA has been developed by the Caribbean Examinations’ Council (CXC) in collaboration with the Ministries of Education throughout the region.
Due to the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, in early 2020, Grenada was unable to accommodate students for the sitting of the external component of the Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment (CPEA) in May of that year. However, the Ministry of Education, Human Resource Development, Religious Affairs, and Information utilised the CPEA internal assessment scores and the Minimum Competency Test (MCT) Grade 5 scores to assist in the assignment of students to a secondary school, in a ratio of 2:1, respectively.
In 2021, however, Grenada administered both components of the examination. The 2021 Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment (CPEA) officially commenced with the internal component in September 2020 and culminated on Thursday, 27 May and Friday, 28 May 2021, with the external component. The assessment was opened to all students who were 11 on or will be before 1 September 2021.
The CPEA comprises 2 components:
- Internal Assessment (40% of total score)
- External Assessment (60% of total score)
Features of the internal assessment include:
- Book Report
- Writing Portfolio
- Practice in “Can-Do” Skills: English, Mathematics, Science and Civics
- Teacher-made-Test in English, Mathematics, Science and Civics
Features of the external assessment include 50 multiple choice questions in:
- Language Arts
- Social Studies.
Students were given 75 minutes to complete each paper.
Registration and Secondary School Assignment
1,906 students were registered for the Assessment in 2021. This figure included 1,026 males and 880 females. However, 1,890 students wrote the external component, while 1,901 wrote the internal aspect.
1,720 students were assigned to a secondary school throughout Grenada, Carriacou, and Petite Martinique. This number includes 892 males and 828 females. Therefore, the Ministry of Education retained 181 students at the primary school level; 134 males and 47 females. These students will have another opportunity to write the Assessment in the academic year 2021-2022.
In 2020, one thousand eight hundred and seven-two (1872) students were registered to write CPEA, but only 1,743 students were assigned to secondary school. 1, 949 students were registered for the CPEA in 2019; one thousand and eleven (1,011) were males, and 938 were females. However, 1,799 students were assigned to secondary schools.
Table 1: The number of students assigned to each secondary school 2021
|SECONDARY SCHOOLS||NUMBER ASSIGNED|
|Anglican High School||105||105|
|Boca Secondary School||41||64||105|
|Grenada Boys Secondary School||140||140|
|Grenada Christian Academy||6||22||28|
|Grenada Seventh Day Adventist Comprehensive||26||25||51|
|Grenville Secondary School||27||74||101|
|Happy Hill Secondary School||26||39||65|
|J W Fletcher Catholic Secondary School||36||24||60|
|Mac Donald College||41||56||97|
|Presentation Brothers’ College||70||70|
|St Andrew’s Anglican Secondary School||60||79||139|
|St David’s Catholic Secondary School||44||56||100|
|St John’s Christian Secondary School||11||21||32|
|St Joseph’s Convent (Grenville)||103||103|
|St Joseph’s Convent (St George’s)||105||105|
|St Mark’s Secondary School||35||54||89|
|St Rose Modern Secondary School||27||32||59|
|The Island Montessori School||1||1|
|The St George’s Institute||4||3||7|
|Westerhall Secondary School||37||59||96|
|Westmorland Secondary School||5||5||10|
The highest score attained in the assessment was 488 out of a maximum possible score of 500. In 2018 and 2019, the highest score was 481 and 490, respectively. The lowest score obtained in the examination was 117, compared to 7 in 2019 and 91 in 2018. The national mean was 69.69 and the standard deviation was 14.81. The mean of 69.69 in 2021 reflects a marginal decline of 1.99%, against 2019’s 71.68. In 2017 and 2018 the national mean was 69.46 and 68.8, respectively. 90.48% of the CPEA candidates writing the assessment obtained 50% or more in the assessment. This reflects a decline 1.92% when compared to the 92.4% achieving the same mark in 2019. In 2020, although there was no external component of the CPEA, 93.1% of the Grade 6 students were assigned to secondary schools.
Each primary school will receive its specific copy of the Grade 6 students’ assignments to a secondary school with particulars for their students only. Therefore, the Ministry will not publish the comprehensive listing in 2021.
In the external component, students performed the best in Language Arts. Out of a total possible score of 100, the national mean in Language Arts was 65.39, a decline of 0.44. In Science, the top performing area over the years, the mean was 64.97, recording a drop of 2.67. The subject Mathematics documented the most significant decrease, moving from a mean score of 55.56 in 2019 to a below average score of 49.06 in 2021. Social Studies was the only area where improvements were noted. The mean for the Social Studies external component in 2021 was 64.51 compared to 64.20 in 2019.
Table 2: The national mean in each subject area in the external component
|Subject||Maximum Possible Score||National Mean|
Two students (1 male and 1 female) attained a perfect score of 100% in the Social Studies, external component in 2021. One student obtained the same mark for Language Arts. No student in neither Mathematics nor Science achieved the maximum mark of 100% in 2021.
In the internal assessment, the best performance was recorded in Social Studies, followed by Science, Language Arts and Mathematics consecutively. Table 3 below demonstrates the national mean in all of the areas. The mean score in the Social Studies, internal component was 83.07 and the Mathematics mean score was 81.16.
Table 3: The national mean in each subject area in the internal component of the assessment
|Subject||Maximum Possible Score||
Table 4: Number of students obtaining 50% or above in the external assessment
|Percentage||Number of students by gender||Grand Total|
Table 4 shows that 1376 students attained 50% or above in the external component of the examination. This figure represents 72.80% of the students writing this component.
Table 5: Number of students obtaining 50% or above in the internal assessment
|Percentage||Number of students by gender||Grand Total|
There were 1854 students achieving the 50% or above mark in the internal component of the examination, representing 97.52% of the cohort participating in the internal aspect of the examination.
- All applications for transfers will be submitted online to the Principal of the Secondary School to which the transfer is being requested. This application must be submitted within 5 days of the results being published and will be reviewed by a Transfer Committee chaired by the Principal.
- The Transfer Committee will comprise the Manager, the Principal and Vice Principal of the school.
- The transfer committees must meet and submit their recommendation to the Ministry of Education no more than 2 weeks after the results are published. Recommendations received after the deadline will not be considered.
- If a school meets the student-teacher ratio 1:35 after placement, NO transfers will be allowed except where a student is unable to take up a space assigned, and a recommendation is made to replace that student.
- Principals will send all recommendations for transfers to the Ministry of Education for approval. Transfers must only be granted after the Ministry of Education reviews and documents the same in writing.
Kindly remember to make your transfer request electronically to the principals of the secondary schools.