TTUTA Tobago officer: CXC results leave great concern

TTUTA Tobago officer Bradon Roberts says a significant number of students who wrote this year’s Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) performed poorly.

So he believes there is need for an urgent intervention to address the problem.

“The CXC results provides great concern as well as great hope,” he told Newsday on August 28.

For those who do well, he said, "There is a formula that works, and for those that are not doing well – the large section – the concern is that there needs to be an intervention.

"So it provides hope and great concern in the same vein.”

But Roberts said while he has not fully assessed the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) results, the students at Bishops High School and Signal Hill Secondary School did remarkably well, with some getting top grades in all of their subjects.

“I did not get the full sheet from the other schools, but from all reports there are some standouts, some students getting all ones in CAPE.”

The CXC released this year’s CSEC and CAPE results on August 20, pointing out that two out of every three students regionally who sat CSEC maths in the May/June exam failed. The examination body said the pass rate for CSEC maths across the region was just 36 per cent.

Roberts said while there were some standouts among the students who sat CXC, with several getting ones and twos, “After those performances there is a big drop to the rest.

“I have always been saying the society is a reflection of the education system, because the purpose of the education system is to produce fitting citizens and seeing what is happening in our space now, there needs to be a drastic intervention.”

Roberts believes students who are disciplined and have a good support system in their schools and homes will flourish in the education system.

“However, we have a high level of indiscipline in our schools.

"So those children who have that discipline and sense of responsibility to say, ‘Let me pay attention in class. I have homework. I have a project. Let me go and work on it when I get home. I am doing my revision. I am preparing for my test’ – those students will always do well. That is what the education system caters for, those students who have that discipline.”

But unfortunately, he said, “The large section of us into the ‘zess’ music, into the gang culture, the look of it because some persons think it is cool...we are having a challenge to maintain the discipline we need in our secondary schools.

“So yes, Tobago would have done well if we look at the top performers. Some of them are standouts. But if you look at the overall picture, we have quite a lot to do if we want to impact society.”

Roberts said education is not just about getting good results but ensuring students become productive citizens who can contribute meaningfully to society.

“So it is more than the grade ones and grade twos, because we have some persons in society with high levels of misconduct and corruption. So I don’t just look at grades, but the overall development of the child. That is the purpose of school.”

THA Secretary of Education, Research and Technology Zorisha Hackett has not yet made an official statement about Tobago’s performance in both sets of exams.