Dear Editor,
I join with fellow students, teachers, and institutions around the Caribbean and share the view that CSEC and CAPE examinations should not be held in July. Having recently completed CAPE myself, I am trying to place myself in the shoes of current CAPE and CSEC students, and I find myself overwhelmed with questions as to how anyone can see this decision as fair. Some of these being:
1) How can a paper 1 and SBA give a grade that accurately represents a student’s understanding of a subject?
2) In the case of Guyana, how will every student access these exams? Specifically those in the interior and other indigenous communities, and those who rely on public transport which should not operate at capacity, and can result in making students late for exams?
3) Has no one considered that this increas-ed movement of students, teachers, and invigilators, can increase the spread of COVID-19?
4) How can students who do not have ideal home situations effectively prepare for these exams if they have limited access to study materials, online classes and past papers?
5) What about the mental health of the students? The sheer pressure of preparing for exams that will now be delivered differently but will be assessed the same is mentally taxing, and this is only one aspect of students’ lives.
6) What will be the quality of these results? Will these students who will matriculate be able to say that they thoroughly learned these subjects?
7)Why are students paying full price for half-baked examinations?
I fail to understand how any pros outweigh these heavy cons, and how a body such as CXC can confidently go ahead with such a decision. We are in a unique situation where everything is different, and, while we have to adapt, we should not have to conform to something unjust. Major examination boards across the world such as SAT, Cambridge, and International Baccalaureate have canceled exams, why does CXC choose to proceed? What about CXC’s methodology is better that these organizations haven’t already considered before deciding to cancel? For lack of a better phrase, this situation is like CXC making a decision and “who vex lose”.
Speaking to the quality of these examinations, how does a paper 1 show a clear understanding of mathematical and scientific concepts? How does it allow students to express their ideas in subjects such as Caribbean Studies and Law? It is no secret that CXC repeats 90% of their paper 1 questions and students have access to past papers. So unless they are planning on making all new questions for all of their subjects in this short span of time, and even if they do, I cannot see how these exams are a fair method of assessment.
For students who plan to attend universities in the United States and Canada in September, what about their grades? Fall semester starts in the first week of September or sometimes in the final week of August. Provisions have been made for other domestic and international students whose exams have been canceled but now that CXC is having examinations, what will happen to the Caribbean students? They are now pressured to excel in these examinations because their future may depend on it, should the university accept these grades. While this is the case normally, I repeat, these are not normal circumstances.
My final point is that CXC will be contributing to a significant increase in COVID-19 cases in every single territory that could have been avoided. It is very foolish and uninformed to think that this mass movement of people to physically take their exams will not result in new COVID cases. These students and invigilators have to leave their home for many days, possibly take public transport, interact with other people for hours a day, and then go back home to parents, young children, and even older relatives, some of which could even be immunocom-promised. It is my hope that if, even after all of our desperate pleas, CXC still goes ahead, that the Ministries of Public Health and Education make special provisions for students and invigilators and make sure they do literally everything they possibly can to protect them. I hope students have the privilege of a large supply of face masks and other protective measures as the national recount staff does.
In conclusion, conducting these exams in July is causing more problems than providing solutions. It is unfair for students to be subjected to these condi-tions. I hope that the Ministry of Educa-tion does more to protect us as students from this injustice. It seems to me as though CXC is doing more to protect their pockets and prove themselves to bigger institutions that they can conduct credible exams during this time but are indifferent about the quality of students they are producing in the process. Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address supplied)