The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) yesterday said that it employs multiple security measures to safeguard the integrity of its examinations and scripts and it adverted to plans for e-Assessments as another measure.
In a statement yesterday in response to an editorial in the June 6 edition of Stabroek News entitled `CXC examination paper leaks’, the Barbados-based CXC said while technological advancement has been integrated into these processes, “human intervention is still required and therefore misconduct cannot always be prevented”.
Incidents such as leaks are of serious concern to CXC as it recognises the negative impact this can have on the mental wellbeing of the candidates and the integrity of our qualifications.
“As a result, once matters are highlighted our response is swift, as with the investigation into whether there was a leak of the CSEC Mathematics Paper 02. This response also includes audits to determine what additional plans can be put in place to prevent future incidents”.
The statement said that as CXC continues to execute the digital transformation outlined in its 2021 – 2025 Strategic Plan, e-Assessment is one of the major strategies in focus.
“This method of assessment can improve the timeframe in which assessments are dispatched to and from each country, the analysis of candidate performance, the approach to learners with different needs and the security of the examinations”, CXC said.
However, it noted that at this time all countries do not have the infrastructure in place to administer e-Assessments due to constraints such as funding and internet penetration. CXC is continuing to work
with those who are ready, as other countries put the necessary plans in place to adopt this “more secure and efficient method of assessment”.
CXC said that it will continue its consultations with regional Ministries of Education on security matters and would like to reassure candidates that their best interests continue to be at the centre of the organisation’s decisions and processes.
The editorial had said that “Recurring controversy over Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), examination paper leaks ought not to be the kind of challenge that we should be confronted with at this time, not when technology has placed at our disposal resources that would render cheating at that level more difficult to perpetrate and when, moreover, Caribbean nations ought, collectively, to be setting their faces against such practices rather than, individually, furiously seeking exoneration whenever irregularities in the distribution of examination papers occur”.
