MINISTRY GIVES PERFORMANCE DETAILS AHEAD OF PARENTS GETTING RESULTS
KINGSTON, June 22, 2026
(Special to the North Coast Times)
The PEP Grade 6 Exams for 2026 show improved results for Language Arts and Mathematics.
This was one of the points highlighted at a press conference in Kingston, Monday morning, June 22, 2026
Minister of Education, Youth, Skills, and Information, Dr Dana Morris Dixon, told the press conference that nearly three thousand (3,000) fewer students sat the exam this year than in 2024. She said this was because Jamaicans were having fewer children. “Every year we are seeing fewer students doing the exam,” she said. This year, 31,868 registered to sit the PEP Grade 6 exams.
Just over eighty-six percent of students sitting the exams were from public schools, with the remainder from prep schools.
(Graphic provided by the Ministry of Education showing the number and percentage of students placed at schools of their choice, starting at left with first preference and ending at right with 7th preference)
In mathematics, 69 percent of those sitting the exams scored at Proficient or above, compared to 57 percent in 2023.
In Language Arts, 72 percent scored at Proficient and above this year, compared to 60 percent in 2023.
The Minister said the results showed “we are on the right track.”
(Minister of Education, Youth Skills and Information, Dr Dana Morris Dixon, addressing Monday’s press conference)
Ninety-nine percent of students registered were placed in secondary-level institutions. Ninety percent of those who sat the exams were placed in one of the seven schools of their choice.
Just under a quarter of the students who sat the exams (6,896 or 24%) got placed at the first school of their choice.
Results are going to be available to the parents on the Ministry’s platforms at 2 p.m. today. The results were supposed to be with the schools by noon, Monday, June 22.
