Minister of Education Priya Manickchand has said the grades from School Based Assessments (SBAs) were not submitted by some public schools to the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), which finalised results based on the performance it saw at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate exams.
Manickchand on Monday said that the Education Ministry did not notice that SBA grades were not submitted and is now asking the CXC to factor them into the final grades.
Speaking with Stabroek News, Manickchand explained that the matter of SBAs not being submitted went unnoticed by the ministry because at the time persons were on leave and other persons left to fulfil their duties did not realise that the SBA grades were never submitted. She further explained that this had gone past the Ministry’s Secondary and Examinations divisions.
Manickchand said that after the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination results were released on September 22nd, the ministry was not aware that the grades were not submitted, hence she approached the examination body only to later find out that the grades awarded by CXC were based on the performance it saw.
The minister further said that it is unclear what was really done regarding the grades since they weren’t submitted. However, she added that due to this, the country was then left no other option but to ask CXC to have a look at the SBAs and factor in the grades. She said that CXC is currently asking that the ministry prove that the SBAs were not interfered with since being handed in by the students.
Manickchand said that the ministry is now trying to assure the council that the teachers had been keeping the SBAs. The minister added that because the students have done their part by completing and submitting the SBAs, she sees no reason for them to be punished by not being granted their full grades.
Additionally, she said that of the 20 secondary schools which received ungraded results, 11 of them did not have SBA grades submitted.
She also assured that the ministry is working to ensure that there is no recurrence of the situation.
The minister also said that private schools performed at a satisfactory level because they had to regulate themselves and successfully submitted their SBAs.
