CXC ACCEDES TO REQUESTS BY GOVERNMENT, UNIONS, AND UNICEF AND POSTPONES CSEC AND CAPE EXAMS BY TWO WEEKS
A decision has been taken by the Barbados-based Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) to postpone the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) for two weeks.
The agency has been under pressure from a number of Caribbean Governments and, most recently, from UNICEF to push back the exams or to alter them from their current form.
However, CXC has opted only to give a two-week delay for the exams slated for June.
Dr. Wayne Wesley, the CXC Registrar, reports that there was a special meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development on Tuesday, May 25.
He says the body accepted and reviewed a report from the Schools Examinations Committee, which made recommendations on the strategy for the 2021 regional exams.
Dr. Wesley says that, after careful deliberations and consideration of all the pertinent issues, the Council agreed that the revised strategy would include several things – including maintaining the administration of all papers.
Therefore, the examinations will commence on Thursday, June 28, while the release of results is expected between the last week of September and the last week in October, as was previously announced.
Meanwhile, the deferral option still exists for candidates who do not wish to write the exams this year. This deadline has also been extended.
Teachers Unions from Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad have been asking that the examinations be delayed on account of the disadvantage their students faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
UNICEF also cited the continued impact of the pandemic as a reason for not having the exams held in their current format.
It is asking that this be done “in line with recommendations provided by the Caribbean Union of Teachers to ensure that the region’s students are not further disadvantaged.”
UNICEF, meanwhile, has praised some of the concessions already made by the CXC.
