CXC will not postpone 2021 exams, reduces practical work instead

Dec 07, 2020 News

Kaieteur News– The Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) will not be postponing the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) examinations scheduled for next year – usually, the examinations are held between May/June annually.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand on Friday on the “Wake Up Guyana” radio programme. Manickchand said that the Council issued a release on Thursday making it clear that they will not be shifting the examination or the level of difficulty.
She also lamented that they will not be reducing the number of subjects being tested.
According to the Education Minister, CXC in their release contended that they need to ensure the students who sit the examinations in 2021 graduate with the same kind of skill as those in the previous years, following the Council’s standard.
Even though CXC will not be making the aforementioned adjustments Manickchand highlighted that there were a few changes made for next year’s examinations.
Among these changes was the reduction in the number of practical assignments/ School-Based Assessments (SBAs) which adds to the students’ overall score. She explained that CXC has changed the number of assignments for Physics, Biology and Chemistry from 16 to eight, those for Family and Resource Management moved from 13 to six and those for Integrated Science moved from 22 to eight.

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand.

“There are less practical subjects, less practical experiments needed, but the syllabus is not going to be interfered with or reduced in anyway,” Manickchand maintained.
In light of this, she stressed the need for students to be in their face-to-face classes, defending the physical reopening of schools on November 9. She said that since the timeline will not change significantly and the syllabus is not being reduced, students will need to utilize the classroom to cover as much work as possible.
Before November 9, students were engaged in online learning via the ZOOM application, Google Classrooms and even WhatsApp, but this was not efficient for completing their syllabi as previously reported by this newspaper.
The November 9 reopening was strictly for Grades 10, 11 and 12 students who will be sitting the CSEC and CAPE exams next year. It served to provide them with face-to-face classes with the intention of having their SBAs and Internal Assessments (IAs) completed and submitted promptly as well as have them more focused.
Many were in doubt about the physical reopening, but it was approved by the Ministry of Health in their official gazette of COVID-19 measures for the month of November and many teachers had complained that it was difficult completing SBAs And IAs at home.
The teachers said that many of their students lacked stable internet connection and most of them who had stable internet simply lacked focus, thus, the physically reopening combated both issues.