Education Ministry releasing official CSCEC and CAPE results may be reckless- Assistant CEO

Feb 07, 2021 News

The Ministry of Education

Students of Queen’s College and The Bishops’ High School protesting in solidarity

Kaieteur News – The Acting Assistant Chief Education Officer (CEO) at the Ministry of Education (MOE), Ameer Ali has stated that it may be reckless for the Ministry to release official results from the 2020 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) examinations.
His statement came as a response to a letter published in another section of the media titled ‘We urge Ministry of Education to ensure the release of Official CAPE and CSEC results.
Following the release of results for the 2020 CSEC and CAPE examinations which are administered by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), many issues arose. Among the discrepancies was the issue of students receiving ungraded marks despite sitting their exams and submitting their School-Based Assessments (SBAs) in a timely fashion. Another issue highlighted, was that students who would have excelled in their year one CAPE scored low grades in year two.
The discrepancies resulted in massive region-wide opposition to the results and reviews were requested.
In his letter, Ali lamented that while the Ministry understands the frustrations of parents and students regarding the delayed results, the Ministry does not review CAPE and CSEC results, a responsibility for which the Council is solely responsible.
”An official release by the Ministry of Education cannot be done until the review process is completed by CXC, and this process is ongoing. Additionally, top performers cannot be officially determined and released due to this incomplete process. Under ordinary circumstances the Ministry would let the nation know of the unofficial results as soon as they get them in or around August of every year. This year however, almost as soon as the results were announced there was mass complaints and the Ministry announced that it would hold its hand as it worked with CXC to have the students’ queries addressed and answered,” Ali noted.
Further, he highlighted that the Minister herself, Priya Manickchand, has been continuously demanding an expeditious end to this process like every other Caribbean territory that sat the examinations.
Students received their preliminary results through the CXC Students’ portal in September 2020 and the majority that requested a review received a change in their grades/ profiles through the same portal according to the acting Assistant CEO.
Ali highlighted claims made in the letter that the MOE has been “silent” on the official release of the results, stating that “The Ministry of Education, from the inception of queries and challenges to grades, has been updating and advising all stakeholders of CXC’s decisions and outcomes of this process. So, to say the Ministry is silent, indifferent is totally untrue, inaccurate and perhaps mischievous.”
He said that CXC is still in the process of reviews and they stated that they have completed approximately 96% of the reviews Caribbean wide. Ali said that they would have committed to completing the process by the end of January 2021 but failed to do so. Adding to that, he stated that the Council is currently in lockdown due to COVID-19, as the headquarters is in Barbados which has been placed on lockdown following a spike in cases.
Since the review process is incomplete, Ali argued, top performers from Guyana and the Caribbean cannot be determined and released officially and for the MOE to do so, it may result in them being reckless since the review is completed many students will have a change in grades.