(Trinidad Express) Secondary school students in the Caribbean region are “digital kids stuck in analogue classrooms,” says Dr Didacus Jules, chief executive officer of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC).
And because of this, an agreement was on Monday signed by CXC and the University of the West of Indies’ Institute of Critical Thinking to review the examinations for 11 CXC subjects, including Mathematics and English.
“It is really a paradigm shift that we are trying to make from rote learning and regurgitation to thinking things through,” Jules said about the prospective review of the examinations.
The subjects to be reviewed at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) are Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Integrated Science, Economics, Caribbean History, Geography, Social Studies, Principles of Business, English A and English B.
And the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) Literature in English examination will also be reviewed.
“This (review) will really help to take CXC to the next level…and bring our subject into tighter convergence with the world of opportunity, especially in those areas where the Caribbean is deemed to have a niche comparative advantage…it will make it not just a subject now but an opportunity to launch you into a real career,” Jules said.
Jules said an example of this was CXC partnering with the Caribbean designers to make the Clothing and Textile exam and syllabus more relevant to the clothing industry.
Apart from Jules the Memorandum of Understanding was also signed by the director of UWI’s Institute of Critical Thinking, Dr Bhoe Tewarie.
Tewarie said the review was a “collaboration and engagement with CXC that will make a qualitative difference to education at the secondary level and will have the positive effect of improving evaluation mechanisms, strengthening curriculum, enhancing syllabuses and transforming the pedagogy.”
He added that the purpose of the review was “to conduct a comprehensive review for all syllabuses examined by CXC and to make recommendations for the redesign and reconfiguration of the examinations and evaluation system for each subject with a view to a ensuring that pedagogical approaches to preparation of examinations are infused with critical thinking.”
The review is expected to take some two years, Tewarie said.
