Urgency needed in CXC crisis

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today.

Statement re: 2020 CXC CAPE and CSEC results

We commend His Excellency David Comissiong, Barbados’ Ambassador to CARICOM, for his recent reasoned, empathic analysis of the plight of the thousands of students, across the entire Caribbean, resulting from the challenges occasioned by the 2020 CXC CSEC and CAPE results.

Ambassador Comissiong concurred [recently] with our position that the most urgent issue currently confronting the region with respect to the 2020 CXC results, is that there is a category of student throughout the Caribbean whose predicted grades are significantly lower than CXC’s current preliminary grades and which do not reflect the known ability of these students, evidenced by their historical performance data, and the students’ mature assessment of their 2020 exam performance.

Indeed, Ambassador Comissiong’s focus, both in his written statement and media comments on Morning Barbados, CBC TV, on 5th October 2020, reflects ours, in desiring what is best for our region’s children and interrogating how quickly we can most effectively and urgently achieve this pressing imperative.

More specifically our common position revolves around addressing the crisis of the 2020 CXC Results to strategically and systematically identify short-term, intermediate and long-term challenges and their optimal solutions.

Thousands of our regions’ students have therefore been adversely affected in many ways:

• the great shock, distress, mental and emotional trauma occasioned by the significant negative variance in the current preliminary grades and the predicted grades/teacher Internal Assessment (IA), based on historically high performance throughout their school life and in preparation for the 2020 Exams;

• Entire former CSEC/fifth form year groups (CSEC 2020) could not transition to Lower 6 and are in limbo, some starting Lower 6 only this week, losing precious study time in an already truncated 2020/2021 academic year

• Some of the Current Upper 6 cannot focus on their CAPE2 study due to the current uncertainty and confusion

• Some of Current Upper 6 Students (CAPE1 2020) have international university deadlines of 15th October, with no feasible opportunity for alternatives to fulfill their academic dreams.

The current preliminary results would make their university acceptance impossible for their highly internationally competitive programmes.

• Some of the outgoing Upper 6 (CAPE 2 2020) have been asked to leave the university programmes they had been provisionally accepted to and started, based on predicted grades which are significantly higher than the current preliminary grades awarded. Indeed, some have lost scholarships granted based on these predicted grades.

• National Government Scholarships/Exhibitions have not yet been announced, which many of those eligible for same, the outgoing Upper 6 (CAPE 2 2020), require in order to fund their tertiary education

• whether the students intend to pursue tertiary education or enter the world of work, they want the grades which they worked so hard to achieve, which will be retained on their transcripts, resumes and job applications, and which in many instances are the culmination of their secondary school experience.

The urgent decision confronting us in the region is: how best can we arrive at expeditious solutions for these adversely affected children, already stressed by the Covid-19 pandemic environment, so that they can focus on their academic and/or career paths?

Our Group has offered an immediate solution: based on the 2020 precedent in Scotland and England, the use of teacher predicted grades/IA, already in the possession of CXC, in lieu of the current preliminary grades, would be a reasonable solution, to correct clearly erroneous 2020 CXC preliminary grades as identified by the respective schools to the respective Ministries of Education, in view of the time sensitive nature of the issue, and the unprecedented context of the Covid19 pandemic, which resulted in the logistical challenges of the 2020 CXC Exams.

Those students with the most time sensitive needs could be identified and their grades reviewed and re-assessed first by CXC, by 10th OCTOBER 2020, the latest (for those with university application deadlines of 15th October 2020).

We further would suggest that, for all the adversely affected students (that is, where their current preliminary grade(s) is/are significantly lower than the teacher predicted grades/IA), as identified by their respective schools to the respective Ministries of Education, the standard definition of the CXC review process would be ameliorated to reflect the following re-assessment:

1. Final Grades awarded in line with teacher predicted grades/IA;

2. CXC Review Fees waived/refunded if already paid;

3. A guarantee by CXC that no downgrades would be given; and

4. An extension of the CXC review period and deadline for same, if needed.

However, it is our position that this re-assessment as defined herein should be completed and made public no later than 16th October 2020, perhaps as part of the report being prepared by the Independent Review Panel identified by Sir Hilary Beckles last week.

Additionally, we propose, in view of the extraordinary circumstances occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, the other category of students, those students who find their grades from the 2020 CXC exams acceptable, would be allowed to keep their grades.

Thus, limited resources should be focused on the most urgent problems as elucidated above.

Again, this proposal, which is an expedited solution to the complex crisis confronting the region, is also in line with the precedent which obtained in the similar circumstances involving the 2020 GCSE/A Level results in Scotland and England.

As another, less preferred, alternative, the teacher Internal Assessment and un-moderated teacher marked SBAs (both currently provided to CXC and which formed part of the marking criteria for the 2020 CAPE and CSEC grades (where relevant) could be used by CXC to determine the final grades for these adversely affected students.

We acknowledge that our proposed solution to the requisite CXC regrading exercise is not the normal marking process of the CXC.

However, as obtained in Scotland and England, it was acknowledged by the relevant examination bodies and government ministries that the extraordinary situation of the COVID-19 environment required rapid, nimble extraordinary solutions in the best interest of those disadvantaged children, with no diminution of the credibility of their examining bodies.

As an intermediary goal, the independent review panel, appointed by Sir Hilary Beckles, after having had its terms of reference confirmed to the public, could continue to conduct their assessment to identify the challenges of the revised exams, methodology of grading and report the same to the public with intermediate to long-term recommendations to ensure that these challenges are not repeated in 2021, with its impending uncertainties, and beyond.

We are heartened that both Ambassador Comissiong and Ms Faith Marshall-Harris, the latter who sits on the Global Committee on the Rights of the Child, have BOTH highlighted, in the media recently, the urgency required to solve this crisis.

These children do belong to ALL of us in the Caribbean region. It is therefore our duty, and moral imperative, to protect their interests and emotional well-being, as they are victims, currently in this adverse situation, through no fault of their own, for more than two weeks.

The best interest of these adversely affected children must be at the forefront of an expedited short-term solution which requires a fair and equitable resolution, as proposed above.

Any further required solutions can follow accordingly.

Let us work together to make our proposed solution an immediate reality.

Lead Committee
Group of Concerned Parents of Barbados