The days of using pen and paper in an examination room are numbered as the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has recorded success in its implementation of electronic testing (e-testing) across several territories.
During the January CSEC exam cycle, 500 students in Anguilla, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat and St. Lucia were allowed to take their examinations for twelve subjects on a computer or electronic device.
Describing this “as a quantum leap into examinations’ administration for CXC”, Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation Ronald Jones, said it was a major step forward for the Caribbean in its application of modern information communications technology to the education process in general.
Jones outlined his expectations that Barbados would soon be joining the momentum regarding such a form of examination assessment, while congratulating the CXC on achieving its next level of products and services.
“It is anticipated that more territories will join the e-testing experience at this time. CXC is working with all territories to ensure a seamless transition to e-testing for those who are ready. In this regard, CXC and its territories have agreed to use a subject registration approach for e-testing, which would allow for the gradual implementation of the necessary infrastructure to facilitate wider participation,” the minister said during a briefing yesterday at CXC’s Pine Headquarters.
With the landscape of education changing, CXC Registrar Glenroy Cumberbatch said it was difficult to teach students by one mode and require that they take the examination via another.
“If information technology is to be used for teaching and for learning then it should also be used for testing,” he said.
He stated that there were several benefits to such a mode of testing and outlined that in a survey conducted after the exams, 96 percent of the 158 students interviewed voted the experience with the new system as very good or good, with just four percent considering it poor and with a preference of wanted to use pen and paper. (JMB)
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