Antigua and Barbuda's primary school students have delivered a strong performance in the 2026 Grade Six National Assessment, with more than half achieving the highest performance tier and education officials declaring the results encouraging — even as declines in Mathematics and Science signal areas in need of renewed focus.
The Top Students
Denushka H. Gibbs of Minoah Magnet Academy has been named the top student in the 2026 Grade Six National Assessment, achieving an outstanding score of 383 out of 400. Marlensky J. Salien of the Baptist Academy of Antigua placed second with 382 marks and was also recognised as the top male student in the nation. Nikesia B. Ralph of J.T. Ambrose Primary School finished third with 377 marks and was named the top student at a government school — a distinction that speaks to the competitive standard being achieved across the public school system.
The National Picture
A total of 1,284 students sat the 2026 assessment. Of those, 53.4 percent achieved Level 4 — the highest performance tier in the evaluation framework — while 89 percent of all candidates attained acceptable performance overall. Those figures represent a strong cohort by historical standards, though they reflect a slight decline from the record-setting performance of the 2025 cohort.
The gender gap that has characterised results in previous years persisted in 2026, with girls continuing to outperform their male counterparts at the highest levels. Sixty-one percent of female students reached the top performance tier, compared with 47 percent of males — a gap of 14 percentage points that education officials are expected to address in upcoming planning for instructional support.
Subject by Subject
The most notable movement across subjects was in Language Arts, which recorded the biggest improvement over the previous year — a positive outcome for a discipline that is foundational to learning across all other curriculum areas.
