The Education Ministry says there was an improvement in the number of grade 4 students who achieved proficiency or higher in the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) Mathematics and Language Arts exams.

The Ministry released the results of the grade 4 PEP examinations today.

In a release, the education ministry noted that 33,540 students sat the Language Arts and Literacy Performance Task and the Mathematics and Numeracy Performance Task exams on June 19 and 20 this year. 

It said this year, 38.7% of students achieved proficiency or higher in Mathematics, an increase from 32.3 % last year.

For Language Arts, 44.3% of students achieved proficiency or higher, an increase from 38.7% in 2023.

The Ministry said there is also an increase in the percentage of students who achieved mastery in the Numeracy & Literacy Performance Task components of the assessment when compared with the cohort last year.

This year, 65.1% achieved mastery in literacy up from 64.6% last year.

Meanwhile, 69.9% of students achieved mastery in numeracy up from 63.4% in 2023.  

The Ministry said it provided special accommodations to 355 students. This included extra time, assistance from prompters or scribes, preferential seating and linguistic aides for students whose first language is not English.

The PEP 4 exams were also administered to 5 students who were hospitalized.

Education Minister Fayval Williams has commended the students on their performance and extends gratitude to the educators and parents for their collaborative efforts that helped to drive this year’s PEP 4 results.