President of the BSTU, Mary-Anne Redman.
The decision by the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) to go ahead with the traditional format for the exams this year, despite the fact that the region is still grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, is not sitting well with the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU).
President of the BSTU, Mary-Anne Redman, says that the Union made recommendations about modifications that could be made should there be an improvement in the circumstances that would allow the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) to proceed as normal, but most of their suggestions have not be taken on board. She raised the concern while questioning what CXC’s contingency plans are if circumstances deteriorate by the time the exams are scheduled to start.
According to Redman, while provision is being made in Barbados for students who want to defer and sit their exams in January or May next year to do so, the BSTU is worried about those who want to do the exams this year and the added stress that will be placed on teachers to “achieve the impossible” and complete the syllabi in time.
She added, “We are of the opinion that the students in the region should not be made to suffer, or the teachers made to suffer, in an attempt to try and have students achieve the impossible – that is complete CXC subject syllabi. Neither students nor teachers should be made to suffer as a result of circumstances over which you have absolutely no control. CXC itself admits that this is an unprecedented crisis and CXC acknowledges its disastrous effects in the region,” she stated.
Despite that acknowledgement, she lamented that the regional testing body has decided to go ahead with the exam timetable, delaying it only by one month, such that it will now start in June.
She further lamented that there has been no reduction in the syllabi content to be taught to students to properly prepare them for the exams; and no changes have been made to the structure of Paper Two, as was suggested by the Union. Redman explained that the BSTU suggested that Paper Two revert to the pre-2017 format, where there were choices on the paper, and further suggested that no one question tests more than one topic.
“...CXC cites equivalency issues in the exam, stating that it would be a problem because issues of equivalency could now be raised if they seek to add choices in Paper Two. What the BSTU finds confounding is that CXC had no problems with equivalency issues when they totally removed Paper Two from the exam last year,” the union leader stated.
Additionally, she said they asked that students have delayed submission dates for School Based Assessments (SBAs) and that in respect of Paper One, which features multiple choice, that more than the required numbers of items be provided for students to choose from. At present, CSEC has 60 items and the number for CAPE is 45.
“CXC is continuing with the exams with no consideration of, as we had asked, an increased number of multiple choice items from which to choose the normal number of required items... All of this is taking place, as I said before, in an environment where students are still reeling from the 2020 exams fiasco; where not all the requested reviews have been completed to date; where there is a clear lack of transparency in the review process in relation to the methodology used [and] the types and qualifications of the persons involved in the review process – whether anyone presently reviewing might have corrected papers before or corrected the same papers that they're presently reviewing,” she indicated.
Meanwhile, the long-time educator said that while they were informed at a meeting with the Ministry of Education recently that CXC would make the general topics of the examinations available to students three weeks before the exam, they believe that six weeks would give the students more time to make informed decisions. She is suggesting that students should have the choice of deferral six weeks before the exams as well. (JRT)
