Director of Education Clare Browne has cautioned against using CSEC pass rates to declare one secondary school better than another, saying the Ministry of Education does not rank schools because their circumstances and student populations differ significantly.

Browne said the ministry presents the statistical performance of each institution but does not use the figures to produce a ranking from first to last or name a “top school.”

“I want to make it pellucid that we do not rank schools for plenty reasons,” Browne said during an ABS Presents discussion on Antigua and Barbuda’s preliminary 2026 CSEC results.

“One of the, maybe foremost of the reasons, is that schools are different. There are a multiplicity of variables — population size.”

He said comparing percentages without considering the number and academic backgrounds of the students involved could create a misleading impression of a school’s performance.

To illustrate his point, Browne compared a school entering 15 candidates and obtaining a 96 per cent pass rate with another entering 100 students and recording a 90 per cent pass rate.

“Which is the better school?” he asked. “You can’t just look at the end number and say, ‘OK, 95.’ There are too many variables.”

Browne said the ministry reports the performance figures as recorded but avoids attaching comparative labels to schools based solely on their overall pass rates.

“We just present the statistical information. One hundred is 100, 90 is 90 per cent, but we don’t rank schools because, for me, it is always about growth, not necessarily about what the final percentage is,” he said.

The education director explained that students enter secondary schools at different academic levels, making the progress achieved during their time at an institution an important measure of success.

He said a school may receive a group of lower-performing students who eventually obtain Grade Twos and Grade Threes at CSEC. Although those final grades may not attract the same attention as Grade Ones, the academic improvement demonstrated by those students could be substantial.

“You could start at rock bottom,” Browne said. “You have a number of students that started out very low-performing and they end up getting Twos and Threes, but the growth of those students might be bigger than students that started out as high flyers, 90, and so they end up with good marks all along.”

Browne said similar caution is exercised when officials recognise individual student achievement. The ministry identifies its top-performing students but does not produce a comprehensive ranking of every candidate.

“We don’t rank individuals like that,” he said. “We identify the top-performing students, but we don’t rank students from one to 10 or one to whatever number we have.”

His comments came as officials released school-level CSEC performance figures covering 2024 to 2026. While the data allow the public to see the percentage recorded by each institution, Browne stressed that the figures should not be treated as an official league table.

“We cannot control what’s in people’s minds,” he said. “But we don’t rank schools, and we don’t compare schools like that.”

This article was originally published by Antigua News Room. Read the original article here: Education Director Explains Why The Ministry Does Not Rank Secondary Schools.