Education
By Astrid Waterman
When I walked up the steps of the Caribbean Examinations Council on that first day of November 1977, I knew what I was going to do. I knew how it was going to be. After all, I had taken the decision that after spending over ten years in a position where I had responsibility and accountability for a work unit comprising ten persons in an office, an additional twelve in the field on some days, and which interfaced with some other eleven persons working both in office and the field, all of whom were involved in a project with very tight to almost impossible deadlines, that I would now be taking on a job where I would just be one of the operatives; responsible for my own output only. Here at CXC I would prepare camera-ready copy for publications as directed by my supervisor. This task would have specific guidelines and procedures which I would follow.
But, didn’t I get the shock of my life! It didn’t take me long to come to grips with the stark fact that the organization was on a mission. There was a task to be accomplished. It had to be accomplished. There could and would be no missing of that deadline of the administration of examinations in five subjects in 1979, and everyone concerned seemed committed to achieving that goal, despite the personal sacrifices that had to be made; and there were many.
Wow! What was I to do? Well I knew that too. I had to get on board. After all, working to tight schedules and impossible deadlines was not new to me; and on hindsight I should have realized from the time I was interviewed for a position at CXC: a post which was advertised to be filled at either the Junior Assistant or Assistant Registrar level.
During the interview, I had indicated that I was interested in the Junior level, and had been bold and I suppose brazen enough when asked to give my reason for wanting to leave what was a senior post in the government service, to respond that the major attraction was the salary level and less responsibility.
With this response, I was sure that I had blown it, so one can imagine my surprise when in less than five hours after the interview; I received a telephone call offering the post at the higher level. I should have known that more was expected than I had envisioned.
But as I said, the atmosphere was one of commitment and determination. One that said, we are going to get it done. We will do it for the Caribbean. So, I definitely was not going to be the odd man out. I caught the 1979 blast-off fever.
My first three days were spent rather quietly. First I had to provide some personal data and then I was given some literature about the organization to read. I had read and understood the documentation from day one, but pored over it again and again on days two and three, because no one brought me any other tasks on those days. But when day four came, I was not prepared to sit on the sidelines anymore, so, I suppose, being bold and brazen once more, I approached the then Registrar and asked why had I been taken on at that time, if there was nothing for me to do.
Well, to borrow a line from Paul Keans Douglas, ‘Who tell me to ask he dat‘? Being the man of action that he was, within a couple of hours he had made contact with Educational Testing Services (ETS) in Princeton New Jersey and arranged an attachment for me so that I could have a firsthand look at their question paper production and printing procedures and undergo some relevant training.
Little did I know how valuable this experience would be; for on return I found myself thrown in at the deep end with; (i) the preparation of pretest forms for a region-wide exercise which was to be conducted in a few weeks time and (ii) the preparation of draft question papers and marking schemes for the 1979 administration: both of which were already well behind schedule. And you know those specific guidelines and procedures that I spoke about earlier? They didn’t exist. So we literally had to develop them from scratch and on the trot. Fortunately, as it is always said some good comes out of every problem. I can certainly state that we were able to develop procedures and guidelines specific to the CXC which, with tweaking and revision as became necessary when demands and technology changed, saw us through those first years and many more to follow. I recall a Past Chairman saying to me one day, “You know Mrs Waterman, you have made our Production function what we never thought it could be in the Caribbean.”
But did I say Production? In 1977-78 there was no Production Unit. These functions were allocated to the Examinations Division and to all intents and purposes much thought did not appear to have been given to how differently the preparation of camera-ready copy for the examination papers was to be handled from that of the general typing functions in the organization. Consequently, to ensure that my tasks got done, I found myself taking decisions and making recommendations which really belonged in the purview of the Divisional Head.
Little did I know that this was being observed and soon, a decision was taken to take the Production function out of the Examinations Division by the establishment of a small Unit. So here was I, that person who was going to be accountable and responsible for no one’s output but her own, back with the responsibility for a work-unit, and one which would be handling the most secure and confidential documents – the examination papers.
It was time to prepare those numerous pretests forms with accompanying manuals and other administrative documentation as well as draft 1979 papers: and in the case of 1979, the Multiple Choice Paper was not just one question paper. Each subject and in at least one case, each proficiency had at least five test forms, because in addition to being the examination question paper, each of these MC paper contained a pre-testing section aimed at providing more MC items for the item bank.
The demand was great, staffing was minimal and equipment was problematic. There was an old typewriter and a first model Selectric composer; each of these with minimal memory capacity. Another of the same composers was on order and I had to agitate swiftly and forcefully to get that upgraded to one with maximum memory storage capacity which would make it easier to handle the numerous revisions and amendments that were being done to the documents. That took some doing, with even the supplier becoming very irate and demanding to come himself to CXC to see who was this Mrs Waterman that wanted to have a machine which was not yet released for the Caribbean market. But in the end good judgment prevailed and we got it; not as expeditiously as we would have liked, but we did.
Meantime, there was a task to be done and we were determined to get it done. We worked assiduously; many times well into the night. Much midnight oil was burnt, and even though we were actually packaging the final pretest forms while the staff members travelling with them were either on their way to the airport or actually boarding their flights out of Barbados, we made it.
The final 1979 examination papers too were not without the pressure of a late start, indecision about questions and all those unexpected things which create apprehension and delay, but we managed to reach our revised deadline for the dispatch of the camera-ready copy in all five subjects.
Hey, wait, did I say all five? Well I guess I could say so now, but an incident with the Integrated Science Papers comes readily to mind. This had to do with Copyright permission for use of stimulus material in question papers. Given training which I in Copyright Law as it relates to publications, which I had undergone in my previous job, I had sought to advise the Examining Committee when they submitted a question in which they were using a clip from the famous comic strip PEANUTS, that permission would have to be sought for its use, but they were adamant that since it was being used in an examinations paper, they did not have to do so. The paper was developed, produced, completed and dispatched to be printed. Then along came Mr Ian Urquhart of The Scottish Examinations Board who was brought on to act as Advisor to the Registrar for the first administration. On the first day he visited the Production Unit, one of the first questions he asked was whether all stimulus material had been cleared for Copyright use. Of course he was told about PEANUTS. He immediately advised that permission be sought. This request was sent off post-haste and the reply was received post-post-haste, as follows. ‘NO! Permission will not and cannot be granted for use of anything from PEANUTS. PEANUTS carries special Copyright use restrictions. We, however, enclose for your consideration, some clips from six other cartoons which in our view are based on a similar theme to that of the PEANUTS one you submitted with your request. You are free to use any of these if you so decide but not PEANUTS.’
Well, Well, Well. At this time Elma Licorish is on her way to ETS in the US to collect and bring the question papers back. So you can guess the mad scramble to get hold of the Chief Examiner who is at this time out of the region, to have the paper revised; ETS to put a hold on the packaging of that question paper which has already been printed. O Carambo! Stress and more stress. However, more midnight oil, determination and commitment saw us through.
In respect of the question papers, another incident stands out in my mind. This has to do with the impact that late registrations and last minute switches of subject and proficiency entries by candidates had on our capacity to ensure that there were adequate numbers of question papers available. The order quantities were based on the preliminary registration figures with what was thought to be a sufficient percentage of extras. But when the final figures were in, it was immediately recognized that there would have been a significant shortfall in both proficiencies. A quiet unannounced, internal solution was found and some additional papers and OS maps were produced. When the problem was officially realized it was possible to respond – ‘already addressed.’
There were also some hiccups when persons identified as couriers for confidential materials sometimes did not notify us that due to a change in schedule they could not accommodate us as agreed. This resulted in delays and necessitated re-scheduling, but despite the fact that Murphy’s Law was very evident, the examinations were duly administered in 1979 as planned.
Then came the marking exercise. How did I get involved in this? We were all involved. It was a collaborative effort of all CXC personnel, region-wide. But for me it was more than just general commitment. It was a responsibility. By this time I had been promoted to the position of Senior Assistant Registrar, Examinations Division (inclusive of the Production Function). Yes, this is the same person who was looking for no responsibility other than for her own output.
We were now interfacing with other divisions and external agencies on all sorts of issues including the recruitment of markers and marker aides; the movement of people and materials throughout the region; identifying and securing suitable making venues and appropriate furniture; developing and producing relevant manuals and other administrative documents; making arrangements for marker accommodation; catering and local ground transportation. Of course Murphy was present, but we showed him that where there is a will there is a way. Yes, we were Pre-tested, Tested, and almost CERTIFIED, but we were PROVEN to be up to the task.
The exercise was not without its bleeps and blunders, nor was it without its very tense moments, but seldom, if ever, was there any finger-pointing or temper-flaring. Instead, the spirit of determination, goal-centredness and cooperation pervaded every action.
