Middle school students are enjoying better marks in English and science, although maths remains a concern, the Ministry of Education said yesterday.

The Middle School Transformation Plan, launched in July last year, appears to be making inroads, with a 13 per cent rise in Cambridge secondary one students scoring level 3 or above out of 6 in English.

There has also been a 5 per cent increase in students scoring level 3 or above in science.

But the average score in maths was 2.2 — the Cambridge curriculum international average is 4.2 — despite the newly implemented National Mathematics Strategy.

For English, the average score was 2.6, lower than the international average of 3.3, while for science, the figure was 3.1, below the international average of 4.2.

Llewellyn Simmons, the director of academics for the ministry, said: “We know that we are working diligently to improve our mathematics.

“In science, this is one of the blue-ribbon performances for us over the past four years.”

Last year, the ministry committed to the implementation of a system-wide National Mathematics Strategy to improve the outcomes of Bermuda’s public school students by 2017.

Asked whether he felt the ministry was on target, Dr Simmons said: “Lou Matthew [the director of education standards and accountability] is leading on that, we are on target and moving forward.

“While we may have targeted 2017 we know it will go beyond that. With these interventions you need at least a five-year period until you really start to see the evidence of the improvement and high achievement.”

Some 1,214 exams were taken by students at A/AS/IGCSE and GCSE level.

Of those, 406 were graded between A* and C — a 33 per cent pass rate and a 3 per cent increase from the previous year.

Some 1,077 exams were graded between A* to G — an 89 per cent pass rate and a 2 per cent rise from the previous year.

Anyone wishing to enter university needs to achieve at least a C grade.

In senior schools, 216 graduates achieved a grade point average (GPA) of 2 and above — a 92 per cent pass rate for the last school year.

However, just 37 per cent of graduates were male — a persistent problem.

Dr Simmons said: “We recognise that there is an ongoing challenge with us for our male students. We know we have the interventions in place. We also have to improve in terms of the educational opportunities for many of our males, meaning it is not solely academic — it may be a blend of their career interests and we are experiencing successes with our males in terms of the career pathways.”

English was the strongest of the core subjects when it comes to the Cambridge primary level 6, with 63 per cent of students achieving level 3 and above.

In science, 62 per cent of students achieved level 3 or higher, but just 33 per cent of students attained this in maths.

Asked whether Bermuda was looking to focus on the Steam [science, technology, engineering, arts and maths] curriculum being implemented internationally, Dr Simmons said: “Credit to us, we began this summer kicking that off.

“We had some very successful Stem [science, technology, engineering and maths] and Steam academics this summer. We have also integrated Stem in some of our science classes.

“We are in the process of outlining our framework. A committee is being brought together to discuss our career, technical and Stem education initiative going forward.”

The Department of Education is implementing system initiatives to improve public schools. These initiatives were launched during the 2014/15 school academic year.