As fifth form students writing the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) turned out for the start of their exams yesterday, Minis-ter of Education Priya Manickchand said that she believes the students are not any less prepared than their predecessors.
In a video released by the Ministry of Education, Manickchand was seen visiting Georgetown Schools and wishing the students well for their first examination.
She also said that she doesn’t think they were “any less prepared, academically, than any other year because of some of the decisions we took”. She explained, “I expect our children to do very well. We are one of the countries that took some bold decisions last year and brought our children back out but not because we wanted to and not by ourselves. We listened to what teachers, students and parents said they needed; that is, face-to-face sessions”.
The minister added that the psychological effects of the pandemic have to be considered but added that she is sure that the students will do well. She also said that the students need to do well because the country is thriving and “there will be many opportunities for young people to further their studies to get exciting jobs to do things that would be meaningful in the development of the country.”
The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC)-administered CSEC and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) were deferred in May to accommodate students’ request for more time due to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the volcanic eruptions in St Vincent and the Grenadines. The exams, which were supposed to start on June 14 and continue until July 16, were instead set for a June 28 start, with results expected to be available in the last week of September, 2021 or the first week in October, 2021.
CXC Registrar Dr. Wayne Wesley had made the announcement of the revised strategy for the 2021 regional examinations. The exams are being administered in their original format, consisting of Papers 1 and 2. Paper 3/1, which is the School Based Assessment (SBA), and Paper 3/2 for private candidates will also be included.
In 2020, the council made a change to the exam style by only having candidates sit Paper 1 and submit their SBAs but there was a regional outburst when the results were announced. The grade point average had dropped significantly for many countries and other discrepancies were found. Manickchand had reached out to the regional examination body, resulting in the results being reviewed for many schools that had subjects marked as ungraded for the entire level.
