Recurring controversy over Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), examination paper leaks ought not to be the kind of challenge that we should be confronted with at this time, not when technology has placed at our disposal resources that would render cheating at that level more difficult to perpetrate and when, moreover, Caribbean nations ought, collectively, to be setting their faces against such practices rather than, individually, furiously seeking exoneration whenever irregularities in the distribution of examination papers occur.
Indeed, it may well be time, one feels, for us to hear directly and pointedly from regional Heads of Government on the issue, bearing in mind that once, as a region, we become tagged as displaying a propensity for cheating at examinations, then those extra-regional academic institutions which our youngsters aspire to attend may begin to raise questions about the veracity of the paper qualifications that are put before them as admission criteria. Truth be told, one dare not even begin to contemplate the possible consequences of such a circumstance, once it arises.
It is not so much that there are not occasions on which leaks of CXC examination papers are not made public, from time to time. The real issue here is that it does not seem as though this is a matter that is anywhere near the top of the regional agenda for urgent remedial action. Truth be told, there remains acres of space for the regional movement, perhaps even at the level of Heads of Government, to publicly and collectively set their faces against the practice of examination papers being leaked and pointedly demand of the CXC that it brings an end to a practice that raises questions about the region’s academic standards.
At the level, collectively, of the member countries of the CXC there have been, as far as we are aware, no suitable focused interventions, to sternly demand that in the matter of the security of examination papers, it move with due haste to do what is necessary to put its house in order.
In this instance, as in previous ones, the CXC appears more anxious to put the leaks behind it. Indeed, some members appear less anxious to have the problem put behind us, permanently, and more concerned with self-exoneration as far as culpability in the matter of the leaked papers. This reflects (or at least so it seems) less concern with the integrity of the regional examination itself and a greater preoccupation with escaping any kind of finger-pointing in those instances when irregularities occur.
One might argue that since this is not the first time that we are discovering that the CXC’s security bona fides as far as its examination papers are far from impregnable, a point, surely, has now been reached where the Council must proffer a much higher level of accountability on the matter of examination papers ‘hitting the road’ prematurely.
One imagines, surely, that the preparation and security of the most important secondary school examination papers in the region would benefit from the highest possible level of technology-driven oversight that the region can offer. The entire handling process, from the setting of the papers, through their release to the various Caribbean territories and their distribution to the examination officials in the various countries should be attended by identical procedural protocols, including security ones. If this is not how the system works at this time then it is the Council itself that ought to be held accountable and the requisite functionaries suitably sanctioned. Truth be told, it is high time that we end the practice of ferreting around, after the fact, seeking to determine where leaks would have occurred. If the security protocols are sufficiently clear cut, backed by the requisite technology-driven safeguards and applied by an identical procedural rigidity across the participating territories by the CXC then it ought not to pose any enormous difficulty to determine where the leaks occur, when they occur.
Here, it is necessary that we restate the CXC’s overarching responsibility to manage the examination’s protocols and procedures in such a manner as to offer iron-clad guarantees about their integrity. That, unquestionably, is the CXC’s responsibility and a critical one.
To accept (at least so it appears) that a particular examination paper had been leaked and to ‘settle’ the matter of the leak by simply deciding that the said paper would be removed from the examination process altogether compromises the intrinsic value of the end result though it is hard to think of an acceptable alternative to setting an examination paper aside if it is deemed to be tainted.
The reported revelation by the CXC’s Dr. Wayne Wesley, during a media briefing, that Jamaica had been identified as the culprit insofar as the leak was concerned, is really neither here nor there, since, in the final analysis, whichever the CARICOM territory in which the leak might have occurred, it is the Council, in the final analysis that is responsible for guaranteeing the integrity of the examination. It is the Council, therefore, that must ‘carry the can’ when the leaks are discovered.
The real question here, of course, is whether the CXC, as the empowered authority for the administering of the examination, ought not to be substantively responsible for the effectiveness of the security regime that applies in the administering of the examination papers. One might even add that in a world dripping with enabling technology there is really no good reason why these leaks should occur once the procedures and ground rules associated with the handling of the examination papers are rigidly adhered to. One might even add that given the technology-protected ‘trail’ that ought to attend the security of the distribution process the CXC ought to be able, ‘in short order’ to point an unerring finger at the territory/circumstance in which the leak would have occurred and by extension at the individual/clique that would have orchestrated the leak. Beyond that, every anomalous occurrence where the security of the examination papers is concerned should be subjected to a scrupulous probe followed by the requisite tweaking of the extant security regime.
