Local NewsNews CXC fixes SBA glitch by Barbados Today 08/01/2019 written by Barbados Today Updated by Stefon Jordan 08/01/2019 3 min read A+A- Reset CXC Registrar Glenroy Cumberbatch Share FacebookTwitterLinkedinWhatsappEmail 331 The confusion and anxiety over mistakes in the grading of the Caribbean Examination Council’s (CXC) School Based Assessment (SBA) projects, are now over. This is because the regional examination body has introduced a new fix for the glitches which plagued the online uploading of the project scores in 2017 and to a lesser extent 2018, CXC Registrar, Glenroy Cumberbatch, has revealed. CXC Registrar Glenroy Cumberbatch This morning Cumberbatch did not go into specifics about what was wrong in the first place but he told Barbados TODAY that the technology, which was supposed to have been ready last year, would now be introduced in time for the 2019 sitting of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams. “Yes, the process of uploading the SBA scores is done, but we had a new system that we used for uploading SBA and it did have some teething problems. We were hoping to introduce a revised version of it in 2018 but unfortunately that was not ready for that year. However we will be ready for this year,” Cumberbatch assured. The CXC Registrar made it clear that there would be no going back to the old way of doing things, noting that there was no hiding from technology. “What you used to have was sheets of paper where you have to enter scores in and then send those scores forward. Obviously, you can get transposing problems with those if you don’t do them properly. We have gone to a technological environment. We are trying to make things a lot easier,” he said. You Might Be Interested In Crystal Beckles-Holder, 2nd runner up in regional competition GUYANA: Body of child found after gold mine collapses Barbadians asked to help with return tickets for Haitians When exam results came out in 2017 and 2018 students from several secondary schools, in some cases entire classes, complained that they received ungraded for their SBAs even though the projects were submitted on time and the teacher uploaded the marks via the CXC online portal. This was also the case for some schools in St Lucia and Trinidad. In 2017 some students of Combermere School were left in tears after learning their SBAs for the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination Management of Business course and a CXC Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate Geography examination were not graded. CXC has since adjusted the marks where proof of submission was provided. However, the matter was compounded by the ongoing calls from teachers across the region, including the Barbados Secondary Teachers Union (BSTU), to be paid by CXC for marking the SBA projects. On several occasions in the last two years, teachers have threatened not to mark them. They have long argued that the workload was too much. This morning Cumberbatch told Barbados TODAY that his organization is no longer a part of the dispute as any discussion of payment is now between teachers and their respective governments. “The SBA discussion relating to whether teachers are paid or not, was approached by the teachers’ unions through CXC. We had a discussion and we also had a consultation with our governments. I can tell you that the matter is now being dealt with at each governmental level by the unions for those countries. So, the Caribbean Examinations Council is not involved directly in this discussion about payment for teachers,” he said. Barbados Today Stay informed and engaged with our digital news platform. The leading online multimedia news resource in Barbados for news you can trust. You may also like A significant dust haze advisory is in effect for Barbados 22/12/2024 Protecting our children: The danger of the Anti-vax movement – Part 2 22/12/2024 What Trump 2.0 Could Mean for the Caribbean Region 22/12/2024