Changes made to facilitate students – CXC

The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) says it has made changes to affect the 2021 regional examinations following calls by the Caribbean Teachers Union (CUT) for changes to be made in light of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and recently, the eruption of the La Soufrière volcano in St Vincent and The Grenadines.

On Monday, CUT wrote to the regional examinations body suggesting that “a narrowing of the syllabus and informing teachers and students of the topics for the examinations in a timelier manner” would better serve the students than the referral that the CXC had offered students.

“The idea of a referral of this year’s examination by students who have already suffered will only further aggravate the suffering of these students,” CUT had charged.

In a statement issued on Thursday, CXC said it was cognisant of the many challenges across the region, including the impacts of COVID-19 and the La Soufrière volcano and has reduced the School Based Assessment (SBA) requirements by as much as 50 per cent in some subjects.

“In addition, CXC will share the broad topics to be assessed on Paper 2 for Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) subjects with the ministries of education for distribution to all candidates on 10 May 2021 (five weeks before the start of the examinations), for subjects where such details are not already available in the syllabus. Candidates are, however, reminded that the entire syllabus is assessed on Paper 01,” the CXC stated.

The council said that following “extensive consultations” with regional ministries of education, a facility was implemented for CAPE, CSEC and Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence candidates to defer sitting examinations and submitting SBAs until January 2022 or May/June 2022.

Consequently, CXC has issued the following guidelines:

I. SBA scores can be transferred for use in the next examination sitting, where the subject is offered.

II. The rules pertaining to the reuse of SBA scores for re-sit candidates remain unchanged.

III. Candidates may also: Submit a new SBA or delay submission of SBAs until the chosen sitting·

IV. For the first time, CXC will accept SBAs in January 2022 for candidates deferring to sit examinations for subjects offered in that period.”

The CXC said candidates should indicate an intent to defer from the June/July 2021 examination cycle by May 1, 2021. No fee will be charged for the deferral of examinations.

The CXC examination schedule begins June 1 and ends of July 16.