CAPE students shocked by lowered Caribbean studies grades

Students of Presentation College, Chaguanas have been left in a quandary after they received notice on Friday that their grades for the CAPE Caribbean studies exam were marked downwards.

Parents are claiming this was done without warning and before grade queries from the school have been submitted to the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC).

One parent, who requested anonymity, said she paid for her son’s chemistry grade to be reviewed and not his Caribbean studies grade.

She also said when she contacted the school early Friday morning, she was told the school had not yet submitted queries to CXC.

The woman said her son went on the CXC online portal at about 2 am. So shocked was he by what he saw, he immediately woke his parents to tell them.

She said her son had a grade one in the subject and was downgraded to a two.

“It's really unacceptable and disturbing for children who put in so much in their years at school to have to put up with this now.”

The mother claims other schools have been affected, and she was notified in a group chat with other CAPE and CSEC parents that as much as 47 students have complained about the same thing.

Newsday attempted to reach Presentation College for comment but was not successful. The school is in the middle of virtual orientation sessions for the new intake of form one students.

The disgruntled mother provided Newsday with a copy of her son’s initial grades which showed an overall grade of one, and individual profile grades of two A’s and a C in the subject. His new grade is now two, with individual profile grades of one A, one B and a C.

She said as far as she knows the subject was a bit of a concern for the school, as it did not receive the overall grades it was expecting from students. A letter was sent to the Ministry of Education about the grades for the subject, but individual queries were not.

Newsday contacted Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly who said, "CXC has indicated it has made no such changes and was unaware of this issue."

She said the council asked for "specific instances" and the local registrar has asked schools to provide information on those affected.

"(The registrar) will communicate this information to Barbados (where CXC is based) and they will continue to check on this issue."