In light of the shake-up and lock-down that the coronavirus pandemic has caused around the region, the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has announced that it will be modifying its examinations schedule and process.
The May/June examinations have not only been pushed back to July 2020, but they will also be adjusted to only include: the administration of at least one common paper (Multiple Choice Assessments) and the School Based Assessments (SBAs) and Paper 032s (Alternative to SBA) for private candidates.
And with that, CXC said that “final grades will be based on the moderated SBAs and Multiple Choice Papers” with the exception of modern languages (Spanish, French and Portuguese), human and social biology and visual arts.
The regional examinations body said this strategy will employ the e-testing modality (online and offline) in order to reduce processing time, resulting in an efficient turn-around of marking and the release of examination results.
In addition, to minimise the disruption to the 2020/2021 academic year, it will provide an opportunity for the “timely presentation of grades to facilitate matriculation to higher education or to access employment.”
Furthermore, the revised process will “yield valid grades and minimise the disruption to the education system during these unprecedented times,” CXC added.
And while the body continues to monitor protocols throughout the region, students and teachers are being encouraged to utilise the CXC Learning Hub – the e-learning platform which provides learners and instructors with a single access point to multiple resources geared towards exam preparation, available at: learninghub.cxc.org.
CXC said that while it continues to monitor the emerging situation, “our first priority is the health and well-being of all our stakeholders.”
Meanwhile, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, Rosa Greenaway, explained that the new plans are still “a work in progress.”
She said that meetings will be held well into next week before teachers and students are briefed on all the details.
When asked whether students and staff have the capacity to execute CXC’s plans, Greenaway said, “presently we are working on it. We are not one hundred percent, but we are working on it.”