CSEC, CAPE examination dates problematic – GTU President

Apr 16, 2020 News

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The dates set aside for the sitting of this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) has proven to be contentious. This is according to President of the Guyana’s Teacher Union (GTU), Mark Lyte.
The GTU President noted that taking into consideration the impact of COVID-19 on the local education system and the preparation of students who are scheduled to write the exams, the June 29 – July 24, 2020 dates for the sitting of CSEC and CAPE should be deemed premature.
“The current situation as it relates to COVID-19 is fluid, so to set the abovementioned dates is not taking into consideration our learners plight with preparation.

We also believe that the strategy put forward by the administration of the exams will be disadvantageous to everyone apart from CXC,” Lyte said.
He asserted that this perspective is not one shared by the GTU alone but by several other Caribbean territories.
According to Lyte, at a meeting held at National Centre for Educational Research Development (NCERD) in March, a few optional dates were put forward to the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) to consider.
“Guyana and most of the other territories agreed that a September date would be feasible for the exam but CXC moved away from that suggestion.”
Lyte said the Council’s decision is selfish and inconsiderate to the learners.
“As it stands, the only party that will benefit is CXC itself, the learners will not have adequate time to prepare and CXC will be removing the paper two from the exams. Most parents already paid full price for their children to sit the full exams. Will CXC be refunding their money?” Lyte questioned.
The GTU Head said he will be lodging a formal objection to the Council‘s proposal with the Ministry of Education.
“I am aware that the Caribbean Union of Teachers (CUT) will be taking a similar course of action as well as many individual islands preparing learners for CSEC.”
The teachers’ union head said too he will be appealing to the government to make representation via the Ministry of Education in no uncertain terms that “We cannot support a June 29 –July 24, 2020 since there is no certainty as to when we will be able to return to school, we will need time to prepare our students.”
Further highlighting the plight of students, Lyte said that the current structure of the exams put forward by the Council will prove problematic for the students in the long run.
“The current structure of the exams indicates that CXC intends to do a multiple choice paper. We don’t know exactly how many questions the multiple choice part will consist and then there is the School Based Assessment (SBA) component of the exam which will be combined to give each student the final Grade.
We are also of the view that not enough clarity has been shed as it relates to score the exam.”
“For example, many SBAs, in times past, are usually between 20-25 percent of the final score. Given that paper two has been taken out the equation we want to know what would be the marks for SBAs and what would be the marks for multiple choice papers?”
Added to that, Lyte said that CXC‘s intention to use E- exams would prove to be virtually impossible for some students to access.
The GTU President stressed that education should be equitable, every learner should have the same opportunities irrespective of where he/she lives or their economic or other status.
“I wish to point as well, we will have serious problems as it relates to the online platforms where our students, especially those who live in the hinterland and riverain communities, do not have access to adequate internet and electricity, if any at all.”
He emphasized that we believe that students as well would need adequate time to prepare.
“The proposed date places limited preparation time on students since currently in Guyana, like many other Caribbean territories, students are unable to access information or interact with their teachers for the completion of syllabus because they are unreachable due lack of access to internet or electricity.
This means the students should be given enough time to meet face-to-face with their teachers or finish the syllabus,” he proposed insisting, “A June examination date is simply not feasible!”
Judging from what comes out of the discussion with CUT, Lyte said our students, parents and governments are all going to be losing out with the exception of CXC which will be making millions as a result of this venture.
“I wish to point out that CXC will not be spending any resources to mark scripts since multiple choice papers are usually marked electronically and SBAs were already marked by school teachers for free.
Additionally, there is no cost for printing paper two which is usually a component of the exam and which parents have already paid the full cost per child,” the GTU President reiterated.
He continued, “CXC is only looking at it on the side of profitability but their decisions will have an impact on students’ future.
The validity of the examination will also be questioned since students certificate in 2020 will be viewed in a different light than the other years.”
“For example, an employer examining the certificate of a student from 2020 might consider the component of the certificate in comparison to a student who graduated in 2019, 2018 or 2010,” he said.

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