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Caribbean Journal of Education

Foreign-Language Achievement and Student Attrition in Jamaican High Schools

Authors: 
Pages: 
231-239
Publication Date: 
September 1988
Issue: 
Abstract: 

Two commonly observed phenomena in Jamaican foreign language 
education, predictably very closely related, are persistently low levels of student achievement and high rates of withdrawal (attrition) from the programme. External examination entries and results from the Cambridge General Certificate of Education (GCE) and the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) offer the best measures of the quality of foreign language study in Jamaican schools and, somewhat, of the level of attrition. These data, gathered over several years, can be indicators of students' performance patterns: the numbers that (a) persist to the final examination stage and (b) are successful. The years 1975 to 1986, a 12-year span offering data from GCE and CXC, have been selected for examination of these patterns. This report comprises: 
• The examination of GCE “O” level foreign language results for the 
years 1975 to 1980 
• The examination of CXC results in Spanish for the years 1981 to 1986 
• The assessment of foreign language results-student entries and 
passes-against enrolment at grade 7 to derive an attrition rate

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