CXC announces exams dates

The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) today announced that this year’s examinations for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) would be held between June and July, with results being available in the last week of September 2021.

CARICOM Ministers of Education and other Regional Education Officials, and CXC representatives, including the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of CXC, Dr. Wayne Wesley, held consultations virtually on February 26 and today, to discuss the administration of the regional examinations, after which the officials made the announcements of the final decisions agreed on at the meeting.

Wesley explained that the CSEC and CAPE exams will be administered between June 14th and July 16th, with the Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence (CCSLC) exams being administered between July 19th and July 20th.

The broad topics that will be on the paper two will be released five weeks in advance, however, students were advised by Wesley to keep in mind that the paper one covers all topics for the subject. The release date for the broad topics list to is set for May 10th.

Minister of Education in The Bahamas,  Jeffrey Lloyd said that it was agreed that CXC administer the three exams in its original format, that is, for the CSEC and CAPE, papers One, Two and Three will be administered, while for the CCSLC papers One and Two will be used.

According to Wesley, the submissions deadline for School Based Assessments (SBAs) had been extended by a month. He explained that the extension deadline has been discussed with Local CXC Registrars, who will decide on a deadline that will grant adequate time for the SBA grades to be submitted to CXC.

Like last year there is a deferral option which caters for persons who choose not to write the exam this year to instead sit the exams in either January, 2022 or May-June, 2022. The deadline for registered person to indicate this decision is May 1st. Wesley added that the SBA scores can be deferred for use in the next sitting should the candidate choose to sit the exam in 2022 instead of 2021.

Lloyd added that it was approved that an extension be given so that students can make a decision for deferral of the sitting of the exam and there was consideration for the loss of learning experience, hence it was decided that CXC should share with ministries the broad topics to be assessed on Paper Two.

Meanwhile, the Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment (CPEA) will be administered on May 27 and May 28, 2021, with results being released on June 15, Lloyd said during the meeting. Online training for the Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) will be administered between May and August.