Integrity of CXC exams has never been affected by shifted dates

Jan 29, 2015 News

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 – CXC Official

The shift in the date of any Caribbean Examination Council (CXC)’s examination has never affected its integrity. At least this is the assertion of CXC’s

Pro-Registrar, Mr. Glenroy Cumberbatch, in an invited comment to this publication.
Moreover, assisting CXC member countries to shift examinations dates if the need arises is not a challenge to the Regional examining body although the only factor that is not immediately known is the cost that is likely to be incurred.  And the associated cost to shift the date of an examination, as will happen here to facilitate the May 11, 2015, polling day will see Government having to facilitate the necessary cost to allow CXC to administer several parallel Caribbean Secondary Education Certification (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency (CAPE) examination papers to local candidates. “That cost is being worked out and would form a contract between CXC and Government of Guyana,” Cumberbatch told this publication.
While Cumberbatch has divulged that a change in the examination date is not a new phenomenon, since CXC has been able to lend its support in this regard to other regional territories, he was however not at liberty to identify any of these territories. He instead noted that “CXC does not reveal the names of countries and their request to the public without their permission.”
The local Ministry of Education was placed into the spotlight following the announcement of the May 11, 2015, date for Regional and General and Elections by President Donald Ramotar.  This was in light of the fact that the polling day, based on CXC timetables for CSEC and CAPE, shared the same date as a number of the CXC administered examinations causing several candidates, teachers and parents to vocalise their concerns.
But according to Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, “we were not overly concerned because of security reasons…we expect mature behaviour that would not see us having security concerns.” She however noted that the major concern was how to use the places of poll, which are schools that are deemed exam centres by CXC, to conduct the examinations under examination conditions at the same time.
Cumberbatch too noted that CXC’s principal concern was to ensure that the Guyana candidates, who registered to write the examinations, had the opportunity to write them in the conditions that they would normally write. “The schools are the centres that are chosen and if the schools are to be used as polling stations then it was not possible to have the two activities competing for the same space at the same time. Therefore it was necessary to ensure that the candidates are not disadvantaged in any way on that given day,” said Cumberbatch.
Also of paramount importance, he disclosed, is the need for keen efforts to be directed towards maintaining the integrity of the examination papers.  “We want to be sure that the papers are kept intact for movement to the centres and away from the centres in a manner that will not present itself in any leakage of papers or any other thing of such,” asserted Cumberbatch.
He noted too that since the CSEC and CAPE examinations are done across the Region “it is necessary for us to take whatever steps we have to…”
The examinations scheduled for May 11th and May 12th 2015 by CXC will now be written by local candidates on June 15th and June 16th 2015 respectively.
Because of the change in the examination dates the morning of June 15 will see candidates sitting the following CSEC subjects: Agricultural Science (Double Award)-Paper2; Agricultural Science (Single Award)-Paper 2 and Theatre Arts –Paper1. In the afternoon of June 15, the following CSEC subjects will be written: Electrical and Electronic Technology-Paper 1; Food and Nutrition – Paper2. The CSEC examinations shifted to June 16 will include Home Economics: Management – Paper 2 and Technical Drawing-Paper 2 in the morning, and Electrical and Electronic Technology Paper 2 in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, CAPE subjects set for the morning of June 15 are: Geometrical and Mechanical Engineering Drawing Unit 1 – Paper 2, History Unit 1 – Paper 2 and Art and Design unit 1 and 2 – Paper 2 and 3 while in the afternoon candidates will undertake the Communication Studies- Paper 2. The following morning CAPE candidates will sit French Unit 2 – Paper 2 and Environmental Science Unit 2-Paper 2 while in the afternoon they will be tasked with sitting Pure Mathematics Unit 1 – Paper 2.
And since there is no way to guard against local candidates discussing the examination papers with their regional counterparts, Cumberbatch noted that the parallel papers that will be administered will in fact have some difference. “They will not be the same exact wording and questions but they will be parallel in terms of difficulty and parallel in terms of content,” said Cumberbatch as he explained that these are in fact backup papers that were prepared with the initially planned papers. This is a regular custom of CXC which is designed to counter any unforeseen problems that could surface thereby requiring CXC to produce substitute examination papers.

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