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Following a record number of student failures at the Barbados Community College (BCC) in the Regional Examination for Nurse Registration in prior years, the pass rate for students has risen dramatically.
This was revealed by BCC principal Annette Alleyne during Saturday’s graduation ceremony at the Wildey Gymnasium.
The pass rate for BCC students in the regional exams was as low as 11 per cent back in 2019, however, thanks to the efforts of the college, the percentage is now just under 90, Alleyne said.
“[In] this year’s class, there are 145 nursing students, and 120 of them are students who were scheduled to have completed the programme prior to 2023, but were impacted by the limitations on the number of students allowed in the clinical setting during the height of the COVID 19 pandemic,” Alleyne said.
“However, I want it here noted as well, that there has been continued improvement in the pass rate at the Regional Examination for Nurse Registration, known as the RENR, where 64 students who were entered by the BCC in April this year. Out of that 64 students, 57 were successful resulting in a pass rate of 89 per cent.”
The principal also indicated that while enrollment at the institution was marginally lower than the previous year, the number of students delaying their studies had also decreased.
“In the 2022 – 2023 period, the college had a student enrollment of 2952, which was 110 less than the previous year. There are 970 students who are graduating this year, and this year there were 120 students who registered to extend studies, showing a significant decrease from last year’s record number of 264 students.”
Meanwhile, Minister of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, Kay McConney, encouraged this year’s graduating class to get involved fully in the current talks surrounding the planned transformation of the island’s education system.
“You graduands, you have been beneficiaries of our education system, and I invite you now to be contributors as we frame the future,” McConney said.
“There is a quote that has been attributed to Nelson Mandela, and that quote is that ‘Education is the most powerful weapon, which you can use to change the world.’ These words … acknowledge the transformative power of education, and they encapsulate the vision we are currently promoting, to change for the better, every child’s experience of their world through education, invite you to aspire with us all; to create an environment, a future, where our education system is fair, inclusive, relevant , and modern.”
(SB)
