By Cleveland Sam
Over the last two weeks the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has honoured just over 100 persons from across the region who are dubbed “Members of the CXC Class of ’79.’ This distinguished ‘Class’ is made up the people who laid the foundation on which CXC’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination now stands. The members of the CXC Class of ’79 contributed in various ways to the successful administration of the first CSEC examinations offered by CXC in 1979 in Caribbean History, English A, Geography, Integrated Science and Mathematics. They were members of the five Subject Panels; members of the five Examining Commit-tees; markers who marked in 1979 and are still marking in 2009; and members of CXC staff in 1979.
To recognize the contribution of the members of the Class, CXC hosted events in Barbados, Jamaica and Guyana and a presentation ceremony in Trinidad during the just-concluded annual Marking Exercise.
The function in Barbados was hosted on Friday July 10 at the Christ Church Parish Church Centre. At this formal event, 53 members of the Class of ’79 received their gifts including Mr Wilfred Beckles, the Registrar of CXC in 1979. Professor Anslem Hennis, a member of the first cohort of students from Harrison College, Barbados to write the CSEC examinations in 1979 was the feature speaker. Honourable Ronald Jones, Minister of Education and Human Resource Development also spoke at the ceremony.
The second event was hosted at the Hilton Hotel in Kingston, Jamaica on July 15. Professor Nigel Harris, Chairman of CXC addressed the function while the feature speaker was Cliff Hughes, a former student at the Excelsior High School, Jamaica who wrote the first CSEC examinations in 1979. Some 30 persons were honoured at this function including the Council’s first Pro Registrar and only first female Registrar, Mrs Irene Walter.
The following day, July 16 was the turn of the Guyana and Trinidad marking centres to host their events. The awards function in Guyana was hosted at the Georgetown Club and coincided with the annual markers’ concert, while in Trinidad, the awards were presented during a lunch-time ceremony.
“All of you have one thing in common,” Honourable Ronald Jones, Minister of Education and Human Resources in Barbados told the honourees. “You have played a significant role in creating a brand that in the relatively short span of thirty years, is distinctively Caribbean and is highly respected across the world as a brand associated with exceptional quality.”
In reflecting on the first students who wrote the CSEC examinations in 1979, Minister Jones noted that there was uncertainty about the new examinations.
“Since you were the guinea pigs, you were unsure of how institutions of higher education would view your new qualifications. You could not be sure either that employers would equate these qualifications with the established and respected certification of the institutions in the former Mother Country. You were therefore expected to engage in what was essentially an act of faith,” Jones explained.
A former teacher, Minister Jones also acknowledged that the new examination in 1979 presented a significant opportunity for the region’s educators. “… while it might have been a time of great uncertainty for our students, it was also a time of great excitement for the teachers and academics across the region,” he stated.
He explained that while in the past educators previously taught the syllabuses and prepared students to write the examinations of foreign bodies, with the advent of CSEC, “we were being given the opportunity to participate in the determination of what our children should learn and be assessed on. Across the Caribbean, we were going to be, to quote so appropriately from the words of the Barbados national anthem, “craftsmen of our fate”.’
Pulandar Kandhi, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education in Guyana and Deputy Chairman of CXC said honouring the Class of ’79 was an appropriate gesture. “When we look at where CXC was, where we are, and where we want to be, we can only acknowledge that honouring our pioneers is fitting.”
And the awardees agreed. Speaking on behalf of the honourees in Barbados, Sheilah Gracia-Bisnott, a member of the CSEC English Examining Team for the 30 years of the examination spoke graciously and eloquently. “The fact that we are being awarded for doing our duty is the supreme reward,” she quipped.
Garcia-Bisnott urged her fellow honorees to “see this as nothing more than your duty, our duty to the children of the Caribbean and the Caribbean.”
The long-time examiner said she felt “an extra-ordinary sense of pride of being a part of this, which is beyond us, better than we are and bigger than we are.”
Speaking at the function in Jamaica, Jasper Lawrence, Chief Education Officer in the Ministry of Education, said the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) is an institution, of which the Caribbean can feel proud.
“The CXC has helped to leapfrog the Caribbean Community from external examination bodies, for setting the standards for secondary education and for measuring the outcomes of secondary education,” said Lawrence, who was deputizing for Honourable Andrew Holness, Minister of Education in Jamaica, who had to cancel at the last minute.
His views were echoed by Cliff Hughes, the feature speaker and himself a member of the CSEC Class of ’79 at Excelsior High School in Jamaica.
He said CXC was a successful regional project that represented “the best of us as a people called the Caribbean.”
Awardees who live outside the Caribbean and those who were unable to attend the ceremonies in the respective countries will be sent their awards at a future date.
