By Latrishka Thomas
The results of Antigua’s 2024 Grade Six National Assessment have been released, showcasing a remarkable performance by female students.
Girls have dominated not only the top positions but also excelled across overall performance metrics.
The highest-scoring students, all from private schools, are: Elyze Henry from Minoah Magnet Academy who led with an impressive score of 385 out of 400, Naliyah Lewis from Baptist Academy who secured the second position with 383, followed closely by Keira Weekes from St Nicholas Primary with 382.
Henry obtained six more points than last year’s top achiever.
The top male, Jordan Lawrence from Baptist Academy and Erin Shen from Post Millennial Academy, tied for the fourth position with 378 points each, while Jordan Weste from Seventh Day Adventist Primary rounded out the top five with a score of 374.
It’s worth noting that the highest-ranking government school student, Oseka Toney from Villa Primary School, placed 11th overall with a score of 378.
In a media conference held on Friday, education officials provided a detailed breakdown of the results.
Anita Francis, Assistant Director with Responsibility for Measurement and Evaluation, reported that a total of 1,288 students participated in the assessment, with a nearly even split between genders: 639 females and 649 males.
Government schools accounted for 739 students (354 females, 385 males), while private schools contributed 549 students (285 females, 264 males).
The results demonstrated a strong performance by female students, particularly at the highest achievement level. The breakdown across performance levels showed that at Level 1 (the highest), there were 366 females and 304 males. Level 2 saw 219 females and 244 males, while Level 3 had 50 females and 85 males. At Level 4 (the lowest), there were 4 females and 16 males.
This year’s top list consisted of 105 students, with 63 being girls. These results indicate that while more males participated overall, females generally outperformed their male counterparts, especially at the higher achievement levels.
In addition, the top list included 22 government school students and 83 from private schools.
Francis shared an interesting observation about government school boys’ performance, stating, “Last year, on the top list, we had seven of our government school boys, and this year, they’re 12. They actually beat the girls for the numbers on the top list. The girls dropped a bit this year, so they’re 10.”
Comparing this year’s results to the previous year, Francis revealed a slight decline in Level 1 performance.
She explained, “So last year, we had 715 students at level one for 54%. This year, we have 670 students for 52%. Level two, we had 489 in 2023 for 37% of all students. This year, we have 463 for 36% of all students. Level three, last year we had 103 students for 8%. This year, we have 135 students for 10%. And at level four, last year we had 11 students for 1%. This year, we have 20 students for 2%.”
Regarding subject performance, Francis stated that last year 1,190 students attained 50% and above in language arts, while this year, the number decreased to 1,083. In mathematics, the number dropped from 940 to 876. For science, last year saw 1,015 students achieving 50% or above, while this year, the number was 997. The total number of students achieving 50% or above across all subjects decreased from 1,196 last year to 1,142 this year.
