No leaks in the Caribbean Advance Proficiency Exam-ination (CAPE) have been detected locally and the examinations are going ahead as scheduled.
Trinidad Express yesterday reported that the Barbados-based governing body, Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) was cancelling all the CAPE sittings in Trinidad and Tobago until June 13, following a leak of the Communications Studies Paper 11 paper last week.
Education officials here, including Minister Shaik Baksh and Chief Education Officer (CEO) Genevieve Whyte-Nedd have acknowledged that the examinations have started.
Asked whether the leak in Trinidad was likely to affect the staging of the exams here, Baksh said that he could not comment on that at this point.
Meanwhile, several students sitting the examinations, which began last week said they have heard nothing that would indicate the exams here would be cancelled.
A student attending one of the country’s leading secondary schools said she was writing Environmental Studies, Soc-iology, Food and Nutrition and Caribbean Studies and had not been told of any cancellations.
The student said that she, along with others at her school, was aware of the leakage in Trinidad.
The Trinidadian newspaper stated that after meeting in an emergency session in Barbados on Sunday, CXC Registrar, Dr Didacus Jules, said the body was forced to postpone all remaining CAPE exams in T&T after confirming reports exposed by that newspaper that the Com-munications Studies Paper 11 had been breached.
There were also new reports of other breaches in the Physics, Chemistry and Biology papers.
Trinidad Express reported that the council said the cancellation was done in the best interest of the students and to maintain the integrity of the exams adding that all existing papers would be withdrawn and new papers issued.
According to the newspaper, it had received a copy of the CAPE paper around 1 pm last Thursday, an hour before the test started for students throughout the Caribbean. The news article, did not name the subject area, in the article. The newspaper said students could have purchase the paper for TT$5,000.
Over the years, the exams have suffered several leakages. The most recent case was right here in 2005, when it was discovered that ordinary Mathematics and English A papers were available before the respective sittings for a fee. In that instance the sitting of the exams for those subjects was rescheduled.
