CXC makes policy shift, bows to lobby for exam delay
Published:Thursday | April 28, 2022 | 12:09 AMJudana Murphy/Gleaner Writer
The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) will be formulating a policy to allow for continued assessment and flexibility in the administration of its examinations.
That declaration was made as the organisation yielded to pressure from Jamaica and other Caribbean governments to push back regional exams by three weeks, a compromise forged through robust negotiations after earlier resisting appeals.
Examinations will now commence on May 23 and end on July 1. Results will be released between late August and early September.
Since 2020, the regional examination body has made changes to schedules and modified exam requirements to cushion the impact of disrupted learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the eruption of the La Soufriere Volcano in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
In a press conference on Wednesday, CXC Registrar Dr Wayne Wesley said the policy will assess the current examination structure and the process used for the delivery of examinations.
Wesley said that this will allow the regional examination body to respond to the varying needs of Caribbean territories in the future.
“Our aim is to become a little bit more flexible with regard to the scheduling of examinations, but once we build sufficient capacity and are able to offer multiple versions of an examination, the issue of rescheduling might become less of a challenge within that context. We are pushing forward for electronic testing to be adopted more widely across the region because that provides a solution that will help us in times like these,” Wesley explained.
CXC Director of Operations Dr Nicole Manning said all 16 territories will be utilising e-testing for at least one subject in the upcoming sitting.
In the 2021 examinations, 27 per cent more CAPE candidates and 84 per cent more CSEC candidates utilised the facility.
She said all Paper 1 exams and 70 per cent of Paper 2 exams are available in the e-testing modality.
“CXC does facilitate registration to use electronic testing as close as possible to the date. We have to be cognisant that not all territories have the Internet connectivity, reliable power source, and the necessary equipment in place to facilitate electronic testing in the way that we have been promoting. However, we are working with our stakeholders to advance this in a real way,” Manning said.
To combat Internet connectivity woes, candidates can sit e-tests fully online, partially online, or fully offline.
As part of its digital-transformation strategy, CXC will begin administering all Paper 1 examinations electronically in 2023.
CXC’s decision to push back CAPE and CSEC sittings followed a special joint meeting of the School Examinations Committee (SEC) and the Council on Wednesday morning.
Jamaica’s Education Minister, Fayval Williams, had requested an urgent meeting with the chairwoman of CARICOM’s Council for Human and Social Development as the country lobbied for an extension.
In March, the education ministry told The Gleaner that 90 per cent of Jamaican high-school principals were in support of delaying the sitting by at least a month.
CXC administers Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) and Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations.
Hours before the announcement, sixth-form students at Excelsior High School told The Gleaner that the postponement would allow them room to complete module three of some of their CAPE units.
Head boy Phillip McLeggon Dixon said the examination body was not being lenient, given that students had not been in face-to-face classes for several months.
“My wish is for them to at least issue out the topics that will be coming on the exams so we have an idea of what to prepare for,” the student leader said.
Audine McIntosh ranked her readiness for the examinations at six out of 10, and though some modules are incomplete, she has been practising with past papers.
“Another two to three weeks could help me. I could do some more studying and finish my modules,” the grade 12 student said.
The CXC registrar added that broad topics for Paper 2 examinations will be released to students soon and should serve as a tool for revision, not preparation.
Additionally, teachers have been given two more weeks to submit grades for Student-Based Assessments to CXC.
“We continue to work with our stakeholders in the best interest of our students across the region,” the CXC registrar said, adding that collective will is critical in arriving at a consensus on matters of regional importance.
Some 105,078 students have been registered to sit CSEC subjects and 25,429 for CAPE.