Garcia: Blame CXC, not me

Education Minister Anthony Garcia said on Saturday that the delay in the release of online results for the May/June Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Exam (CAPE) and the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations not his fault nor that of his ministry but the fault of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC).

"The problems associated with the late release of results, those problems do not reside with the Minister of Education. It is not the fault of the Ministry of Education. The fault rests directly on the shoulders of CXC."

The results were were released online Saturday though some students were still having difficulty accessing their results. Garcia, speaking during a telephone interview yesterday, said he was informed yesterday by Chief Education Officer Heeralal Seecharan that the CXC internet portal has been opened - no specific time was given - and the students could access their results.

"However while I am in my constituency office in Arima I am still getting calls and concerns from students and parents that they not seeing results online," he added.

He said he will have to deal with those specific issues from his office tomorrow.

On Saturday Sunday Newsday saw posts by students and parents who had accessed their results but there were also calls to the media by parents complaining about the results still not being available.

Garcia said that the results were scheduled to have been made available on August 9 and he was unhappy over the delay which had caused students "unneccessary stress." After the initial delay the results were supposed to have been made available online on Friday from 10pm but this deadline was also missed.

"Today is 19th August and some students still having difficulty."

Garcia said he was dissatisfied with the late issuing of results which was unfair to students. He said the late issue of results caused lot of students to be anxious with respect to acceptance to college and universities and the date of application. Garcia pointed out that the deadline date for some foreign universities was Friday and studenst not being able to access results "put them in a quandary."

He said that he and his ministry were being blamed for the delay on social media but reiterated that it was the fault of CXC. He said there was still no information from CXC on the cause of the delay.

He also said that a number of principals contacted him expressing their dissatisfacting with the way CXC has been operating, both in this case and on previous occasions. Garcia said he scheduled a meeting with secondary school principals this week to discuss some of the concerns the schools have been having with respect to CXC and the way it has been conducting its business.

"In many instances it is unsatisfactory."

He said that following that meeting he will decide the next step. He also said that he wanted to ensure the integrity of the examination is kept and the confidence the population has in CXC is maintained.

"I respect CXC as a regional institution administering a regional examination."

CXC Assistant Registrar Cleveland Sam asked that queries be sent via email and told Sunday Newsday yesterday in a telephone interview that they would be forwarded to the CXC director of operations.