Protest of certification by CXC

TTUTA

THE CURRENT regional concerns surrounding the timing of the administration of the CSEC and the CAPE Examinations by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) have come from many quarters. There are divergent views from regional governments and other stakeholders, including parents and teachers.

The discourse, however, brings into sharp focus the philosophical underpinnings, and the reasons, for having our Caribbean students engage in these examinations. Is certification now the do all and end all of the teaching and learning process?

Certification for levels of education attained by Caribbean students is the business of the CXC. Certification is for the people, for the students, and our treatment of them is meant to aid their achievement and development as we prepare them for future careers and activities.

The critical aspect of human development which measures our success as educators is that of teaching students to explore and capitalise on their skills and competencies, beyond what they obtain from the process of certification.

The student must see their accomplishments as more than just grades on a piece of paper. They must be able to visualise themselves as going forward in life with a clear sense of who they are, what they are capable of and what they can contribute to our society. Are we content to let our Caribbean students be defined by grades only?

For those who have been professionally prepared for the job of teaching and anyone else involved inhuman development, the term “student-centredness” is of great implication at this point in time. The concept suggests that the adults will act in a manner that upholds the rights of the student to education. Education offered in a manner which confirms his identity as a person and gives him his best chance for achieving his educational goals.

Is CXC being student-centred when it insists on an examination immediately following a universally traumatic lockdown of all students? This lockdown was a matter of life and death. There have been various views expressed about the conditions the students may have endured during this period. Many of them would have been bored, anxious, frightened, hungry, abused. They have been without their teachers.

CXC adds to the pressure by informing them that regardless of their psychological/emotional state they must sit the examination in July. CXC offers an abridged examination as an incentive. How does this benefit the student? Suppose the student, because of his state of mind, fails the exam in its proposed new format? How will he regard himself?

Soldiers after periods of stress are often made to do a debriefing. How will the student be debriefed in order to be ready for July? Such unkindness in dealing with these thousands of students is to be resisted. We must protest loudly that this is not student-centred at all. We must stand up for our students.

If the powers that be subject our students to this kind of abuse because they have the power to do so then we may as well abandon our efforts to be student-centred. We will not live down what we have chosen for them. Our responsibility is all the greater because they have no voice.

CXC does not exist for itself. It exists to serve the students. Will CXC be satisfied with the situations of inequity that may arise as many students are not in a position of preparedness to receive final grades using the method proposed? Will governments have the resources to facilitate those students who may wish to redo the examinations in January 2021 if they are not satisfied with their grades from the rushed sitting? Will students have to pay to resit the examinations?

Since the Government of TT has indicated its preference to have the examinations administered in July, when will teachers and students receive the laptops required to facilitate distance learning? What are the Ministry of Education’s plans for providing psychosocial care for all of our secondary students as they prepare for these examinations? What are the plans for the cleaning and filling of water tanks, the proper sanitisation of schools, the provision of masks for all students and staff on the schools’ compounds? What will be the plans for supervision by invigilators under the conditions of social distancing provided by the Ministry of Health?

This is one protest that must be won for our students. They need to return to school, to be “normalised” and brought back to an examination frame of mind, without the fear that covid19 is waiting to take their lives. We must not allow abuse of our students in having them forced to do an examination that they are quite probably not mentally prepared for.