Saint Lucia has emerged as the Caribbean’s top-performing territory in the 2026 Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment (CPEA), recording a national average of 79.26 per cent and producing the region’s highest-performing student.
The results, released by the Ministry of Education on Tuesday, June 30, reflect improvements in the island’s overall performance, particularly in Language Arts and Mathematics. Education officials credited the achievement to the collective efforts of teachers, parents, principals and students, while also acknowledging that work remains to improve performance across all districts and narrow the gender gap.
Education Minister Kenson Casimir announced that Saint Lucia’s national average of 79.26 per cent placed the country first among participating territories. He highlighted notable gains in key subject areas.
“I want to highlight, as Chief did, Language Arts improved from 79.95% in 2025 to 81.63% in 2026. This represents an increase of 1.68 percentage points. This shows that our investment in literacy, interventions and teacher support is producing positive results.”
He added: “Of course, I commend our principals, teachers, literacy coaches, parents and students whose collective efforts have contributed to this improvement.”
Mathematics also recorded an encouraging increase.
“Mathematics has shown improvement, moving from 72.45% in 2025 to 74.69% in 2026. An increase of 2.24 percentage points,” Casimir said. “So while this progress is encouraging, Mathematics still remains the lowest performing subject area nationally and must therefore continue to receive our focused attention.”
The minister also outlined district performances, noting that District One led the island with an average of 84.66 per cent, followed by District Seven with 81.18 per cent and District Two with 80.73 per cent.
“I also need to highlight District Six, having also met the national mean, with Districts One, Two and Six surpassing the mean in all subject areas. This means that we have some work to do with our other districts.”
“This ministry’s commitment from last year stands. Closing this gap is a priority, not only a talking point.”
Casimir also pointed to continuing differences in performance between boys and girls.
“Girls continued to outperform boys this year on the composite score, 80.47 versus 77.93, and on every single subject area without exception.”
He noted that 58.1 per cent of girls scored at or above the national mean, compared with 53 per cent of boys.
“This ministry continues to take that gap seriously rather than treating it as a footnote and we will be expanding literacy engagements and interventions specifically targeted at boys in the early primary grades.”
The minister also announced the island’s highest achievers, beginning with eight students tied for ninth place, each scoring 97.8 per cent. They were Kamaya Donaie of Riviere Doree Anglican Combined, Kaitlin Montoute of Anse La Raye Primary, Anton Patrick Adrian D’auvergne of St Aloysius RC Primary, Urvel Beaubrun of Soufriere Primary, Liam Patrick Freeman and Brielle Mayers of Carmen Renee Memorial School, and Daniel Perida and Newt Leonce of the Montessori Centre.
Grace Amaya Herman of Augier Combined School and Nathan Laurencin of Carmen Renee Memorial School tied for seventh place with 98 per cent, while Aria Gustav of Ballata Government Combined School and Iyanola Finisterre of Dame Pearlette Louisy Primary shared fifth place with 98.2 per cent.
Ahil Auguste of Camille Henry Memorial School placed fourth with 98.6 per cent, followed by Angelina Shiriki of the Montessori Centre in third place with 98.8 per cent.
Casimir announced that Alexander Charles of Augier Combined School finished second nationally and second across the region with a score of 99 per cent.
The island’s top performer, however, was Emerald Sinisa Lucy Alfred of the Montessori Centre, who achieved 99.2 per cent to claim both the national and regional titles.
“Topping the island and indeed topping the region and everybody writing this standardized CPEA examination… from the Montessori Center, Emerald Sinisa Lucy Alfred.”
“Put your hands together for her… Emerald Alfred, with 99.2%.”
Meanwhile, Minister in the Ministry of Education Danny Butcher paid tribute to the many people who contributed to students’ success, saying education is built on the sacrifices of families and educators.
“You have teachers, bankers, doctors, janitors, painters, fishermen, lawyers, and they wake up every morning again to give these children the best and so they must, we must thank them for it.”
He said parents and caregivers had worked tirelessly to ensure children had the resources needed to succeed.
“We must thank them for ensuring that the children, no matter how big or small it was, had the resources to go to school. Ensuring that they had breakfast in the morning, ensuring that they had uniforms to go to school, ensuring that they created a space so that the cultural capacity of the children could grow and that the children could thrive and that the children could learn.”
Butcher also urged parents to respond with compassion when receiving their children’s results.
“I want to give our parents today a very, very important warning that when you receive those results today or tomorrow, that this is a moment of profound love, grace, and encouragement.”
He stressed that every child deserved recognition for their effort regardless of the outcome.
“You must do everything in your power to ensure that you reassure our students and our children that they have given their best and that you will celebrate them at this important juncture in their academic and educational journey. You must.”