Skipping CSEC, CAPE

Aug 21, 2026 Editorial, News

(Kaieteur News) – The revelation that more than 35,000 Caribbean students failed to turn up for this year’s CSEC and CAPE examinations should send a chill through every Ministry of Education, every school, every parent and every community in the region.

This is not simply a matter of students missing an examination. It is a warning sign about the state of education, student preparedness, parental support and, perhaps most importantly, the growing disconnect between young people and the systems designed to prepare them for adulthood.

According to the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), 32,403 CSEC candidates and another 3,534 CAPE candidates were absent from this year’s examinations. That means thousands of young people voluntarily or otherwise surrendered an opportunity that could have influenced the direction of their lives. CXC Director of Operations Dr. Nicole Manning rightly described absenteeism as a major concern. A student who does not show up cannot be graded. There is no opportunity to earn the qualification for the examination component missed.

The disturbing question is: Why are so many young people not showing up? CXC has indicated that some students told its surveys they stayed away because they felt unprepared. But feeling unprepared cannot become an acceptable reason for surrendering before the battle begins. An examination may expose weaknesses, but not writing it guarantees failure.

Still, the education system must look beyond simply telling students to “try.” Why do students feel so unprepared in the first place? Are schools identifying struggling students early enough? Are parents adequately involved? Are teachers sufficiently supported? Are students receiving the counselling and academic assistance required to navigate increasingly demanding examinations?

These questions demand serious answers. Guyana cannot afford to look at these regional figures as somebody else’s problem. Our education system is part of the same Caribbean examination structure, and the weaknesses exposed elsewhere can easily exist here. There is another troubling revelation: the gender imbalance. Females accounted for 62 per cent of CAPE candidates and 59 per cent of CSEC candidates, while males accounted for only 38 per cent and 41 per cent respectively.

That disparity demands investigation. Why are boys increasingly underrepresented at the higher levels of secondary education? Where are they falling out of the system? What social, economic, cultural or educational factors are pushing them away from academic achievement?

The Caribbean cannot continue to celebrate female advancement while merely lamenting male underachievement. Both require attention. A society cannot afford to leave either half of its population behind. At the same time, CXC deserves credit for recognising that the traditional examination model may not be working for every learner. The introduction of the Caribbean Targeted Education Certificate, or CTEC, is therefore worth serious attention. Its modular approach allows students to master sections of a subject, earn credentials along the way and eventually build toward the full qualification.

The mathematics pilot is particularly revealing. Of 2,535 students who wrote the first CTEC mathematics module, 88 per cent achieved acceptable grades. That is a dramatic improvement over the traditional situation in which roughly one-third of candidates typically achieve acceptable grades in mathematics.

This does not mean standards should be lowered. They must not be. Rather, it suggests that perhaps the method of delivering and assessing learning needs to change. Education should challenge students, but it should not be designed in a way that makes too many of them conclude before they begin that success is beyond their reach. The Caribbean is facing a generation that will have to compete in a rapidly changing world. Qualifications matter. Skills matter. Discipline matters. Persistence matters.

We cannot normalise young people disappearing from examination rooms. CXC has sounded the alarm. Governments, educators and parents must now listen. The 35,000 absentees are not merely numbers on an examination report. Behind every number is a young person whose future may have taken a wrong turn. The Caribbean cannot afford to simply count them. It must find them, understand them and bring them back.

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CAPE, CSEC, CXC, Editorial

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