CXC convenes exam review team

CHAIRMAN of the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) Hilary Beckles said in a statement on Monday that an independent review team has been convened to assess the complaints submitted to the council by students across the region.

The council has been bombarded by complaints, protests and online petitions seeking a re-mark of both the July CSEC and CAPE exams, the results of which were issued on September 22.

The statement said the concerns raised on social media about the “efficacy of procedures and systems” used by CXC in the grading of exams are important to the council.

“The Registrar, Dr Wayne Wesley, and his team have met with distinguished regional Ministers of Education in order to discuss these concerns and identify the underlying causes with a view to moving forward and providing clarity to our stakeholders.”

It said the council is satisfied with explanations given to ministers of education for its position. “(CXC) understood that while there might be policy and technical issues to be addressed immediately, the maintenance of public trust going forward is paramount.”

The statement said there will be ongoing dialogue between the council and ministers based on the official gathering of data from ventilated concerns. “Each and every formally reported case will be reviewed and where remedies are required, they will be applied,” CXC assured.

It said CXC management has been “impressive” in delivering the July exams during a pandemic, crippling the doubt around the revised examination systems and procedures. It said given the challenges, however, it was anticipated that a period of review and possible revisions would follow.

As such, an independent review team will soon begin the process of reviewing all of the formal complaints made and present a report to be discussed at a later date with the relevant stakeholders.

President of the Secondary School Principals Association Ronald Mootoo said students in TT are following the query process put in place by the Ministry of Education. He said students have been instructed to lodge their complaints with their respective principals, who will then forward it to the ministry.

He said many students are following these guidelines rather than submitting their complaints to CXC directly. “Many of them have accepted the mechanisms available to them. While some of them are aggressively complaining on social media, the majority of (students) have accepted the mechanisms available to them and they seem to be doing that.”

He said principals’ associations throughout the region have reached out to CXC to discuss the matter and CXC has agreed to meet with them on Wednesday night via zoom meeting at 8 pm.