Trinidadian students to sit CXC exams in July

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Trinidad and Tobago students will sit examinations set by the Barbados-based Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) in July, Education Minister Anthony Garcia confirmed Friday.

He told a virtual news conference the exams will begin on July 13.

“Let me stress again, CXC is a regional examination body and when all the ministers of education on behalf of their governments come to an agreement we have to abide by the collective decision of the regional governments,” he added.

Earlier this month, the Caribbean Union of Teachers said it was “deeply concerned” at the decision taken by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) on Education that regional students will sit the exams in July.

The COHSOD meeting in May, which was held virtually and chaired by the Antigua and Barbuda Education Minister Michael Browne, disclosed that the CXC would be setting exams for students in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE).

But, in a statement, the union called for Caribbean governments “to be mindful not to rush the process for the reopening of schools to facilitate the writing of CXC examinations unless they have instituted all measures outlined by the reopening of school protocol”.

The Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association had also expressed concern about the Schools Based Assessment (SBA), saying that students would need more time to complete SBAs since they would have had no face to face interaction with teachers since schools had been closed in March as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

But Garcia said that a new deadline had been set for the completion of SBAs.

“In terms of the preparation for the completion of the SBAs, since the SBA will require constant and diligent work on our students, we want to ensure that all of our students are given the opportunity to produce the SBA of the highest quality and as a result we are reaching out to our teachers and our principals asking them to give support to our students so that the SBAs can be completed on time.

“CXC has decided to extend the deadline date for the submissions of the SBAs and that deadline date has been extended to the 30th June,” he added.

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