Exams for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) are now scheduled to be administered from June 28th, 2021 following a further two-week delay.
Results for the examinations are expected to be available in the last week of September, 2021 or the first week in October, 2021.
Registrar of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), Dr. Wayne Wesley yesterday made this announcement as he presented a revised strategy for the 2021 regional examinations. Last year’s examinations saw major disruptions because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“…..The special council meeting convened yesterday (Tuesday) accepted and reviewed a report from the Schools Examinations Committee … and made recommendations on the strategy for the 2021 regional examinations which emanated from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) through its Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD), where teachers, students as well as members of government would have been able to share their opinions and indicate their preferred choice,” Dr. Wesley explained.
The examinations were previously scheduled to be administered between June 14th and July 16th.
According to Dr. Wesley, the examinations will be administered in its original format.
It therefore means that the examinations will consists of Papers 1 and 2. Paper 3/1 which is the School Based Assessment (SBA) and Paper 3/2 for private candidates will also be included.
Other components of the revised strategy include extensions of the deadlines for submissions of SBA’s and deferrals.
SBA’s are now due to be submitted on or before June 30, 2021 and candidates who wish to not write the examinations this year now have up to May 31, 2021 to make this decision.
To date, Wesley said 1,090 CSEC and 13,655 CAPE candidates have chosen the deferral option.
There is also an option for candidates to write the examinations electronically. For this to happen, Dr. Wesley said that the respective territories are required to submit a request.
Thus far, Dr. Wesley said 17,343 CSEC candidates have opted to write the examination online. In terms of CAPE, he said 1,539 candidates have also chosen this option.
These candidates are from 11 territories.
Additionally, Dr. Wesley explained that a review is currently being done on the broad topics which will be on paper 2 that were released on May 10, 2021 with the aim of providing more clarity.
The results of this review are expected to be released no later than tomorrow.
“…..Queries would have been submitted and council would have noted that CXC is currently responding and in this regard a review is being done to ensure that there is full clarity,” Dr. Wesley said.
Dr. Wesley further stated that consideration will be given during the grading process to account for the psycho-social impact on a candidate’s performance to ensure that they are not disenfranchised.
Meanwhile, CXC Chairman, Professor Hilary Beckles said that the agreement was reached after the council met with the education leaders across the region.
“….In each country, in each jurisdiction, the issues are different. Different in terms of intensity, diversity and the COVID is posing challenges with modifications and variations across the region……This is a regional crisis and we are expected to find regional solutions,” Beckles said.
Some of the education ministers, according to Beckles indicated that the students are ready to sit the examinations while others requested more time varying from three to five weeks.
“…..Majority of the countries are of the view that our children are ready now, some countries said we need more time,” he said.
According to Beckles, the two-week delay was an attempt to find some “middle ground”.
“This has been a matter, of course, that has been at the heart of the COVID management issues in our region. The delivery of examinations to our students, the attempt by the organisations to be innovative, to be reactive, to mollify, to make changes, in a very galloping circumstance. It is changing from month to month. It is a cascading cocktail of difficulty and all of our institutions are being tested not only the CXC,” Beckles said.
Changes in the format for last year’s CXC exams saw an outpouring of complaints from all across the region when the results were released. Many students complained about their grades and a large number of reviews had to be done. A high-level team was then appointed by CXC to assess the spate of grievances and a number of recommendations were made.
