THE CXC: A FORWARD STEP FOR THE CARIBBEAN

Jul 25, 2009 Editorial

Forty years ago, the Americans landed on the moon in what was described in scientific terms as one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind.
Thirty years ago, regional educators launched an ambitious project, the Caribbean Examinations Council, a small yet ambitious step in forging a regional examination that would be more relevant to the needs of the people of the Caribbean.

Whether the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has been able to develop indigenous examinations and syllabuses for students of the region is still a question for debate.
What is less contestable is that the CXC has been one of the sustainable regional institutions and an example that perhaps greater success can be achieved in regionalism if this process is based on the identification and satisfaction of common needs within the Caribbean.
The CXC examinations were first launched in a few subject areas. Since then it has expanded to cover an extensive range of subjects. So extensive have been the range of subjects offered by the Caribbean Examinations Council that few students can claim to be forced to write the GCE examinations because of the absence of a regional substitute.

But while the CXC has provided this option to students, and has in the main displaced the GCE as the main examination sat by secondary school students throughout the Caribbean, its syllabuses have generally been patterned after that of the GCE. Many textbooks also have been issued in traditional subject areas.
These texts have been created to cater for the regional syllabuses, but in the traditional subject areas, more or less mimic the syllabuses of the GCE.
The true worth of the CXC as regards educational content is however better exemplified in the other subject areas such as Geography and Agricultural Science where the syllabuses have a distinct and unique West Indian flavour, thus making the examinations more reflective of the reality of the Caribbean.
In forging ahead over the past thirty years, regional educators have benefitted from a corps of highly trained professionals, the products of the region’s educational system. They have been up to the task of developing not only a regional examination to match that of the British equivalent, but more importantly of building regional curricula in a number of subject areas.

To have done that without any major hiccups in its first thirty years of existence is a credit to the Caribbean Examinations Council and to the quality of our educators within the region.
There are of course still problem areas to be ironed out. The grading of students in a number of proficiency areas such as understanding and expression, presents complications as is the grading scheme itself. This does present problems for employers who are forced to discern this maze of Grade Ones without distinctions and Grade Ones with distinction; or between Grade Twos with differing degrees of understanding of the subject areas.
While the CXC may feel that the details of its grading system may be more helpful to the discerning employer, in reality it poses a number of problems, more especially so when employers have to consider that a Grade Three in one year may be considered a pass, while in another year it is not. Surely this is one area that requires simplification.

Another troubling area, not unique to the CXC examinations, concerns security of the examinations themselves. There have been well-publicised breaches of the CXC examinations, with persons being able to obtain the examination scripts prior to the examinations.
This is an area of great concern and for which the CXC cannot take full blame.
What should be of concern though to the CXC is the extent to which persons would go to cheat on an examination, suggesting that performance at these examinations are seen as too critical for the life prospects of students, something that regional educators may wish to consider as they review the celebration of this important milestone.
As the Caribbean Examinations Council celebrates its 30th year of existence, it would do well, while patting itself on the back, to engage more seriously with the private sectors and governments of the region to ensure its continuing relevance.

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