Thousands of secondary and post-secondary students across Saint Lucia and the entire Caribbean region gained access to their 2026 May-June Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) exam results starting at noon local time on Tuesday, marking the annual reveal of one of the region’s most widely watched education benchmarks.
The official results release was accompanied by a performance breakdown presented by CXC Director of Operations Dr. Nicole Manning during a public ceremony hosted in Anguilla, where she outlined both gains made across the region and persistent challenges facing the regional examination system.
At the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) level, the highest tier of CXC assessment for students preparing for tertiary education, the latest results delivered a notable positive shift. A total of 93.52% of all CAPE candidates earned acceptable passing grades, representing a measurable improvement over previous cycles. Dr. Manning celebrated the upward trajectory, noting that overall regional performance had “gone up a notch again” in this year’s sitting.
Several subject areas stood out for particularly strong performance at the CAPE level. Caribbean Studies, a core regional subject, earned top marks among candidates, while the Information Technology (IT) discipline posted exceptionally high acceptable-grade rates: 95% for Unit One and 99% for Unit Two. Environmental Science followed close behind with a 97% acceptable rate for Unit One and 96% for Unit Two, and Physics delivered similarly strong results, with 97% of Unit One candidates and 98% of Unit Two candidates earning passing grades.
Performance at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) level, the main assessment for secondary school students completing secondary education, painted a more mixed picture, even as the region recorded a slight uptick in overall outcomes. The regional average acceptable-grade rate for CSEC hit 72.18% this year, up from the 2025 sitting.
Consistent with CAPE trends, Information Technology was the highest-performing CSEC subject, with 83% of candidates securing acceptable grades. Principles of Business followed with an 81% acceptable rate, and English A posted an 80% passing rate. However, some subjects proved far more challenging for candidates this cycle. Principles of Accounts recorded a 72% regional acceptable rate, while Physics stood at 69% and Chemistry at 68%.
One subject saw a measurable drop in performance compared to previous years: Social Studies. Dr. Manning openly acknowledged that the subject had “taken a hit this year, generally” in her breakdown.
Mathematics, long one of the lowest-performing subjects across the region, also showed incremental progress in 2026. The acceptable-grade rate for mathematics rose four percentage points to 42% this year. Dr. Manning pushed back against potential criticism of the still-low overall figure, emphasizing that the small gain should not be overlooked. “Any improvement in Math is a good improvement,” she said, adding “improvement is improvement.”
Beyond performance outcomes, CXC also reported 106 confirmed examination irregularities during the 2026 CSEC sitting, a statistic that highlights growing challenges for exam security amid expanding access to personal technology. The vast majority of irregularities involved students using unauthorized electronic devices during exams, with additional cases including collusion between candidates and possession of unauthorized study materials.
Notably, CXC recorded its first cases of AI misuse as a distinct category of exam irregularity, marking a new front in the council’s efforts to maintain assessment integrity as generative artificial intelligence becomes increasingly accessible to students across the region.