CXC must do better

THE EDITOR: Several weeks have passed since the decision was made.

However, since CSEC and CAPE exams are still ongoing, it is my belief that the Caribbean Examinations Council's (CXC) decision to throw out the maths Paper II exam is still topical, still relevant and, to those thousands of students across the Caribbean directly affected by this decision, still very stressful.

As a student, I have seen and experienced firsthand the effort many others put in over the years for the sake of passing mathematics.

Imagine years on end, stressing about a life-changing exam. Imagine staying awakewhole night working over this paper.

Imagine your parents or guardians spending hard-earned money to send you to extra lessons so you could do well in this paper.

Imagine working your hardest on this paper for two whole years. Imagine all those hours spent.

Then imagine this paper is now worthless. All the time, money, sleepless nights and hard work spent, all going down the drain because of a callous decision taken by CXC.

It's the height of unfairness when students have to depend on a 60-mark, multiple-choice exam to determine their entire maths grade.

This is excluding the SBA mark, for which some students ride on the backs of others, and in turn, get an overall high mark that was not the fruit of their own work.

Another view is that because everyone, approximately 20,000 people, only needs to do Paper I, it is all the more competitive to do well.

If someone loses a mere five marks in this exam, they risk scoring a grade II. If you lose 15 marks, you might just scrape by with a grade III. This, CXC, is totally absurd!

It is not the first time an exam paper has been leaked and I am certain it won't be the last.

In 2008, when the physics paper got leaked in Trinidad, CXC made Trinidad do over that exam with a different paper so as not to interfere or disadvantage the thousands of students who also sat that test in the rest of the region.

Why couldn't this have applied to this year, after the maths paper II was leaked in Jamaica?

CXC had already pinpointed the location of the leak, so why was this not an option? Why the need to callously flush away the efforts of so many thousands who sat the exam?

Clearly if it was an option for Trinidad back in 2008, then it should have been an option for Jamaica in 2023. Why must we, the students, endure this terrible aftermath?

So CXC, what would you do if maths Paper I (the multiple-choice exam), which is yet to be written, was to be leaked? Would you also scrap that exam as well and grade students across the region on the strength of just their SBAs?

As the only large exam council for the entire Caribbean, please give better thought to your actions and the consequent emotional and mental fallout it can and will have on students.

These exams are critical in determining our future. As such, CXC must get its act together and implement fair and just protocols to deal with issues, including leaks, instead of arriving at on-the-spot decisions to the detriment of students across the region.

BELLA LINO,

CSEC STUDENT

San Fernando