100 percent pass rate in e-tested subjects – Assistant Exam Superintendent

Aug 23, 2018 News

Although electronic-testing [e-testing] was introduced by the Caribbean Examinations Council [CXC] early last year, Guyana only opted to embrace the feature this year.
In fact, according to Assistant Superintendent of Examination, Ms. Dawn Griffith, while e-testing was not adopted for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate [CSEC] examination it was only taken advantage of at the level of the Caribbean Advance Proficiency Examination [CAPE].
However, only two subject areas saw the use of e-testing, Griffith disclosed. These areas included Digital Media Units One and Two, and Animation and Gaming Unit One, and Griffith disclosed “those areas all recorded a 100 percent pass rate.”
The decision to introduce e-testing came as part of CXC’s effort to embrace the evolution of Information Technology. The introduction of e-testing last year saw the participation of some 500 candidates from seven territories – Anguilla, Cayman Island, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat and St. Lucia.
The e-testing format is one that allows candidates to make use of a computer or an equivalent device to participate fully in the Paper One or multiple choice segment of the examinations which CXC had regarded as successful since its introductory attempt.
Speaking of the success of the venture, CXC Registrar, Mr. Glenroy Cumberbatch, had said that that the initiative has been found to be very favourable to the majority.
“It has been a very successful venture and I want to thank all those members of staff and all the other people who made a contribution in this historical moment in CXC. We tried and were successful in offering examinations electronically in January 2017,” Cumberbatch said.
In its quest to have e-testing as its strategic direction by 2020, Cumberbatch had said that
CXC decided to look at all of the strategic plans of the various Education Ministries across the Region, and found that included in those plans were moves to include Information Technology more in the teaching/learning and assessment of students.
“We had to close the circle…it is not easy for children to take part in activities in one way and then do the examinations in a totally different way. If Information Technology is to be used for teaching and for learning, then it should also be used for testing,” Cumberbatch asserted.
CXC moreover decided to embrace the added benefits of e-testing. Some of these benefits, according to Cumberbatch, included the fact that children could take advantage of their long acquired Information Technology skills.
“We set out to do that and we got added benefits of e-testing, and included in some of those benefits is that students have all the skills that are needed. Should they just use it for social media or for sending messages to one another and so on, or should they also use them for the learning assessment?”
He continued, “We concluded it would be very good for them to use them for educational sessions as well, and hence we embarked on this effort to provide electronic testing to students from the Region.”
As such, when the examining body conducted its examination last year it was essentially able to continue its journey in having innovative systems added to its examinations.
“We began as an innovative institution and we will continue to be very innovative,” the Registrar assured.

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