CXC gears to set up expert working group

Aug 21, 2012 News

– welcomes probe into Council’s operation

The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) is currently on a mission to set up an Expert Working Group on the teaching and learning of Mathematics and English in the Caribbean. The move comes even as regional outcry regarding the 2012 results in the target subject areas has surfaced. According to CXC Registrar, Dr. Didacus Jules “a simple question for that Working Group is how do we improve?”
The plan, according to Dr Jules, will see efforts being made to look at the historical performances recorded by CSEC. That review, he said, is likely to see the Working Group reviewing 10 years or even more of performances in the subject areas even “looking at the examination reports and drilling down into the results to see exactly which concepts our students have historically failed to get that have been impeding their advancement in Mathematics.”
At the moment, CXC has a robust set of empirical data on which to analyse and which to decide the way forward, the Registrar said. The aim will also be to look at the syllabus itself as according to Dr Jules “in CXC we are not afraid of criticism.”
In fact, he asserted that the model of CXC was built on one of continuous improvement. He added too that no syllabus is cast in stone, but there is a process contrary to some of what is being peddled in sections of the Regional media by an individual who purports to be an educational expert in one of the territories. That individual, according to Dr Jules, is now calling for a review or a probe of CXC, because of the performance in English and Mathematics.
“Well we welcome any probe, but it is based on very fallacious assumptions because we don’t sit on Mount Olympus and issue edicts and examinations. Ministries of Educations from across the Caribbean sit on everybody of governance in CXC,” Dr Jules insisted.
He said too that CXC results usually undergo an independent audit process with some of the best professors from across the Caribbean in Mathematics and Psycho-metrics who audit every aspect of the examinations, and the Final Awards Committee receives those reports, thoroughly peruses them and then gives them the final stamp of approval before they are issued.
“So we belong to the Region and we respond to the Region. We will review the syllabus and the pedagogies because it is not enough to just review the syllabus, we also have to define what the methodology is that should best be used with each syllabus to help address differences in learning styles and abilities,” he noted.
The Working Group, according to Dr Jules, will also have to look at the question of international best practices even as he as he alluded to the fact that the Region does not exist in isolation.
“Everything we do must be internationally benchmarked to ensure that we are globally competitive and out of that a Regional Plan can be derived.”
CXC also has plans to address the area of teacher training, as according to the Registrar, there are emergency things that must be done.
The examining body has historically provided some level of teacher training, he said, because whenever a new syllabus is rolled out “we come to every territory and run workshops to orient teachers, but these are short training workshops.”
As such he said that CXC has now decided to work with the University of the West Indies’ School of Education to offer a professional certificate in the teaching of CSEC or CAPE Mathematics.
“We are not pretending to be into teachers’ training. What this is going to do is simple, that is, take that teacher through the Maths syllabus from beginning to end so they understand fully the content, and how that content works that they (teachers) are supposed to be teaching.”
Additionally, CXC will seek to orient these teachers to a range of pedagogies for a range of children with different learning styles and abilities so that they can effectively deliver to a varied group of students, Dr Jules said.
Also, teachers will be required to understand how to use Notes Master, which is a free interactive learning portal, setup so that they can utilise it as a tool for Information Communication Technology integration. The latter is deemed as crucial, since according to the Registrar, “chalk and talk doesn’t cut it anymore; it is dead!”

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CXC gears to set up expert working group

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