Controversy has erupted here and in other parts of the Caribbean over what has been described as the “shockingly low” and flawed grades awarded by CXC in this year’s CSEC and CAPE examinations.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic this year, CXC had controversially decided to modify rather than postpone or cancel its examinations.
The Council had announced earlier this year that Paper II, the essay paper, would be discarded in favour of an increased weighting for Paper I and the School-Based Assessment/Internal Assessment. While they failed to reveal this new weighting for each element they asked stakeholders to trust that everything would be fine.
Two days after the release of the CSEC and CAPE results everything is not fine and various students, parents, schools and governments are calling for an investigation.
Guyana’s Minister of Education Priya Manickchand said that an investigation has to happen with a view to resolving the concerns justifiably held by parents, students and teachers.
“This is a countrywide rejection of what appears to be too many discrepancies. We’ve seen children who otherwise performed very well throughout their academic life coming in with Grade V and Grade VI. It’s stunning and shocking to their souls. We’ve seen entire schools going ungraded although everybody sat the examination so clearly something happened,” Manickchand contended.
She noted that the Council has put out a statement suggesting that there are processes such as applying for a review but stressed that CXC cannot be flippant.
CXC has repeatedly stated that anyone with questions about an Absent or Ungraded result, may submit a Query while those with questions about their grade who would like to have a script re-examined may submit a request for a Review.
“Queries are free and the cost per review is USD$30.00,” the Council reminded but for Manickchand this is not acceptable.
“These concerns are coming from an entire country, and other countries too. They cannot be flippant about it and say we have processes and you must follow it. Many of these students are poor people who cannot afford to pay for something that might very well not be their fault. CXC needs to find a solution to this and they need to do so quickly,” the Minister stressed adding that she will be writing to the Council.
She urged students not to despair.
“The adults around you are fighting for you. Know that you are not alone. Your teachers are fighting for you, I am fighting for you. Your parents are fighting for you. The Government of Guyana will be fighting for you. It is not over
`Fix you business’
General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers‘ Union (GTU), Coretta McDonald who sits as an opposition member of parliament supported the Minister’s position.
“We say to CXC fix you business right or we going to fix it for you. We cannot allow our parents and teachers and students to make the kind of sacrifices they are making and not be rewarded for this sacrifice,” she explained.
McDonald reminded that both the GTU and the Caribbean Union of Teachers (CUT) had objected to the modified exam and had been ignored by CXC.
“We have been crying out to CXC all along that they should be restructuring the whole exam during this COVID-19 period. We had meetings with them in March and May. CUT voiced our concerns. We spoke about CXC owing our parents who paid for two parts of the exam but got one. We voiced our concerns about the credibility of the exams and what kind of weighting the 2020 exams would have against the 2018 or 2019. We were given all the political talk from CXC and here we are with our children being disenfranchised with willy-nilly grades,” she lamented.
Both Manickchand and McDonald stressed that the issue is countrywide.
“We know that Linden has concerns, we know that New Amsterdam has concerns, St Rose’s, Wakenaam…it’s just widespread,” the Minister shared.
The matter came to light after the administration and students of Queen’s College began to protest the Grades awarded at the premier institution.
Approximately 60 QC students along with students from the Bishops’ High School and St Joseph High staged a protest yesterday in front of the Exami-nations Division in the QC compound.
The students repeatedly chanted “fix those grades” and demanded that the Council not just review the grading system but re-grade all papers if necessary so that the raw scores can be corrected.
The administration of the school meanwhile has expressed a willingness to approach the Courts for an injunction barring an official declaration of results until such time as its concerns are satisfactorily addressed.
“We have already consulted a lawyer, our intention is to ensure that we file an injunction to block the declaration of the results,” Principal Jackie Benn-Ralph announced at a press conference yesterday.
Benn-Ralph with the support of the QC Parent Teachers Association (QC-PTA) and the QC Old Students’ Association (QC-OSA) stressed that the school intends to pursue the matter vigorously including if necessary the re-introduction of a second examining body into the public school system.
“If CXC does not bend we will petition and we plan to do so through the Ministry of Education to remove Guyana from writing the CXC examinations. There are other examinations bodies and we can very well carry our business there,” the Principal said.
She explained that while the Council has not provided the school with a record of its performance individual students have accessed and complained about the results posted on the CXC online portal.
“Guyana’s top 1% seems to be underperforming in certain areas such as Integrated Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, Social Studies and Geography,” she lamented before explaining that the institution has diligently tracked the performance of their students during their time at QC and can clearly say they were not awarded the Grades they earned.
“I have been at the helm of this institution for the last seven years during this time we have always being able to measure our success…however, this year we have noted that our students’ grades have shown discrepancies and disparities,” the Principal said.
The administrator who also teachers CAPE Sociology said that she has not been able to sleep for nearly 72 hours since she accessed the results of some of her students.
In total 261 QC students sat CXC examinations; 95 at CSEC, 101 at CAPE Unit 1 and 65 at CAPE Unit 2.
Benn-Ralph told Stabroek News that 121 students across all three of these years have so far complained of their grades.
Not reflective
Tylor Grandison who sat 13 CSEC subjects and was awarded nine Grade Is and four Grade IIs stressed that this result is not reflective of her ability and effort.
“My mother, my father, my family knows the effort I put in. They also know my capabilities. My teachers who have been teaching for years know my capabilities. We all expected all Grade I,” she stressed noting that once she got over her personal disappointment she found that her performance was significantly better than her colleagues who are now too distraught to leave their rooms.
According to Grandison at least three of her colleagues received Grade V in Religious Education (RE); a situation unheard of at Queen’s College.
Stabroek New understands that of the 15 students who sat RE only one was awarded a Grade 1 while nine were awarded a Grade II and five were awarded Grade IV.
Notably while these students completed their School-Based Assessments in Groups and therefore entered the exam with the same projected Grade their final results were incredibly disparate. In one group students were awarded Grade IIs and Grade V.
Internal Coordinator for Examinations at the College, Samantha Liverpool stressed that this was impossible.
She reminded that the Council regularly recycled questions from its pool and revealed that for the 2020 examinations about 80% of the questions were recycled. She further noted that all SBAs were submitted on time and received positive feedback.
“So when I look at a student who would have gained over 95% in an SBA, looking at a paper where over 80% of the questions came back, please don’t tell me a Queen’s College student failed that exam. Our students at the College are accustomed to very challenging examinations and they all can attest to that. They believe that our exam here is two times harder than the exam they receive externally and we have proven that for many years,” an incensed Liverpool said.
She further stressed that as a client which pays CXC nearly $15 million a year, Queen’s College is simply not satisfied with the service.
“We believe that because we are paying, we need to get service so CXC we are your customers…and I already raised it with the Ministry (of Education) that we need a competition for CXC,” she said adding that they have also not responded to queries.
Liverpool said she has asked for the marking scheme, the weighting of Paper Ones against the Paper Twos but so far she was awaiting a response and stressed that the burden was now on CXC to “prove to us where we went wrong” by going back to the scripts, marking and moderation.
This position was supported by the president of the old students’ association of the Bishops’ High School, Kadeem Davis.
Clear statement
Speaking at yesterday’s press conference Davis said that CXC must issue a “clear statement” on the evaluation methodology and conduct an immediate and thorough review of the exam results.
“Without the shadow of a doubt, we know that once this is done, they will have to ensure a re-grading because we know it, the students know it, everyone knows it,” he said.
QC Head Prefect Zane Ramoutar, who sat CAPE Unit II shared that he who easily achieved Seven Grade Is at Unit 1 brought in boundary scores.
“At Unit 1 I got seven Grade I with six all A profiles but now I play cricket with some of these subjects and I can’t understand what is going on,” he said explaining that he was awarded Grade IV at Integrated Mathematics.
The College has seen surprising results for every student in this subject. A total of 55 students sat the exam and were awarded 13 Grade IIIs, 33 Grade IVs, seven Grade Vs and two Grade IIs.
This is distinctly different from 2018 when 54 candidates earned 38 Grade Is, six Grade IIs and six Grade IIIs, three Grade IVs and one Grade VI. In 2019, 64 candidates earned 36 Grade Is, nine Grade IIs, 11 Grade IIIs and seven Grade IV and one Grade V.
Ramoutar stressed that since he managed to score Grade Is in more challenging Units it cannot possibly be an issue with his ability.
Speaking on the grading process he reminded that each paper is normally counted towards a final grade. In Physics for examples Paper 1 totals 40%, Paper 2 another 40% and the IA 20%.
He stressed that if Paper 2 was removed then there must be a new weighting.
“If you remove 40% what’s in that space?” he asked.
Similar questions are being asked all across the Region. Stabroek News understands that in Antigua an official query has been filed about the grade award for more than 100 students in Literature and Performing Arts.
In a number of other subjects areas such as integrated science and physical education individual students and at least two learning institutions have applied for reviews.
The Minister of Education of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Nyan Godsby-Dolly has explained that she personally spoke to CXC about complaints in her country.
“It is causing distress, which is regrettable, especially for the students involved who are already stressed in this year of the pandemic,” she said in a statement before urging that the desire of students to be fairly treated be balanced with a need to protect the reputation of CXC.
“It is critical for queries of this nature to be dealt with through approved and well-defined channels if the integrity of the body that the majority of citizens in the Caribbean region use for certification is to be maintained,” Godsby-Dolly said.
She noted that an online petition which gathered in excess of 12,000 signatures from across the region indicates to CXC that the issue must be addressed to put to rest troubling questions and concerns that are shared across the region.
The Minister stressed that the island was eagerly awaiting the Council’s “elucidation of the complex issues surrounding this matter, even as we advise schools and individuals to follow the established procedures to make the necessary queries.”
The MOE will take all required steps to ensure that this issue is adequately addressed, she concluded.
Contacted for comment, the Barbados Minister of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, Santia Bradshaw, told Stabroek News that she is concerned.
“The disquiet among students who recently received the Caribbean Examinations Council’s CAPE and CSEC examinations is definitely cause for concern. I am of the view that an urgent investigation must be carried out by CXC into this matter to preserve the integrity of the examinations,” the minister noted adding that while there must be respect for process the council must do more.
“I do feel however given the unprecedented number of students who have raised concerns, particularly those online, I would strongly urge CXC to move swiftly to investigate and also to consider the waiver of fees associated with the review. Indeed these are not normal times and as a cloud of uncertainty looms over the heads of several of our students who are preparing to go off to university, it is incumbent on CXC to urgently resolve this matter so that they can get on with their lives,” she stated.
