(Trinidad Express) An appeal has been made to Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly to get answers from the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) and put an end to “nine weeks of torment” for thousands of secondary school pupils.
The Education Ministry’s headquarters in Port of Spain was placarded yesterday by dozens of parents, who are calling for “justice” for their children who wrote this year’s CSEC and CAPE exams.
After weeks of wrangling with CXC over the 2020 results for both exams, they are now accusing the Council of taking their money for queries on results and of re-sending the same contentious grades as before.
The parents said many children are suffering emotional strain over the issue and that some were further affected by news last week of huge financial cuts to the Government Assisted Tertiary Education GATE) programme and that the number of annual State-funded scholarships has been significantly reduced.
The announcement was made last week Friday by Gadsby-Dolly, who said a means test will now be mandatory for GATE support and Government will no longer fund post-graduate degrees.
Parent and spokesperson Sherry Sookoo told The Express yesterday that enough was enough, that the nation’s children are suffering and the CXC must explain itself.
Additionally, Sookoo said: “We are calling on the Minister to seek answers from the Council. You are the bridge between the children and CXC, we don’t have a contract with CXC. Please find out from CXC how they came up with these grades.”
Sookoo said schools have started to receive results from queries by parents over their children’s grades ,but “not a single grade has been different or deserving”.
Queries were sent to the Council based on a November 6 deadline and re-grades began coming into schools a week later, Sookoo said.
However, the parents who protested yesterday are convinced that no further work was done on the issue or the children’s papers and that the previous grades were simply re-sent. “We are appealing for the intervention of the Minister as we are unable to get answers ourselves from the CXC,” Sookoo said.
Stress all round
Even the query process was distressing, Sookoo said, as some parents could not afford the US$30 fee per subject and funds had to be raised.
She said there were also reports that some schools, which were assigned as conduits between parents and the CXC for queries, were sending applicants directly to the Ministry.
“The entire journey has been one of frustration but more so for the children,” Sookoo said. “CXC took our money and left everybody’s grades the same.”
Regional uproar followed the release of preliminary results for CSEC and CAPE on September 22, leading to a petition signed by thousands of pupils, including from Trinidad and Tobago, disputing the grades in a range of subjects.
