CXC students under mental strain as they await review results

By Kareem Smith

Local sixth form students are growing increasingly anxious as the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) prepares to release findings from its first review of controversial grades from the July/August exams.

Upper sixth form students from a wide cross-section of institutions told Barbados TODAY that their frustration with the results and an overall distrust of the regional body is having a demoralising effect on their performance at school, as they prepare for another round of examinations next June. In some cases, students have been forced to seek medical attention for their anxiety.

And with very little information about the extent of the independent review ordered by CXC Chairman Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, some students are fearful that a lack of transparency from the regional body could continue.

Amid persistent protests from upset students, Sir Hilary assembled a distinguished team that included Professor Hazel Simmons-McDonald, Professor Andrew Downes, Professor Francis De Lanoy and Harrilal Seecheran to assess the modified approach to the July/August exams.

“We only know about an independent body doing a review of CXC, but they haven’t been transparent with this process and they haven’t been transparent with us ever. I think it’s a really big issue and I don’t know if persons fully understand how mentally taxing it is for students who have to continue pursuing these subjects right now,” Combermere student Guyza Mayers said on a Barbados TODAY conference call.

“It is not only the students that are upset and discouraged, but the teachers as well who are wondering how their top students are coming back into the school with grade fours and fives.

“The students are very demoralised, and as one of those students, I do not have that push and that motivation to get back into my work that I usually have,” she added.

Lodge School student Jade Clarke also described the ongoing experience as “demoralising” and added that in many cases, sixth form students are becoming apathetic about attending classes.

“It made us feel like all of the hard work meant nothing,” she explained.

“Everybody is trying to stay positive about school even though there is nothing to be positive about. We still have our futures ahead and a lot of planning to do, but the grades we received . . . are not satisfactory for the universities that we were looking to apply to this year and next year. These are failing grades in Canada, the US and the UK,” Clarke added.

Students are still in the dark about changes which appear to have been made to the way School Based Assessments (SBA) were graded. They are also uncertain about the weight attached to multiple choice papers, when the paper two section of the exams was removed.

“The atmosphere at my school is one of general disappointment and distrust of CXC as the body tasked with accurately representing where students were at the time of the exam. Many of my friends have suffered extreme levels of anxiety and have had to go and see medical practitioners,” said Skye Raven-Reid, an upper sixth form student at The St Michael School.

Immediate past president of the Ellerslie Student Council, Shakeem Howell who recently entered an LLB degree programme at UWI, explained that the discrepancies between his lower sixth form grades and his grades in this year’s sitting could result in him being required to withdraw.

“I didn’t do that exam with horse blinkers on. I knew the information and I expected a grade one and I was predicted to get a grade one. I performed at the top of the class, I came first in every single assignment and my group made all the necessary tweaks and followed all the suggestions of our teachers to ensure that we went in with the best possible SBA grade. So to see a grade four when in fact I got a grade two last year and was predicted to get a grade one . . . has me confused,” Howell said of his grade in Entrepreneurship. 

Of the impending review, the young law student declared: “The discrepancies are too large, so CXC needs to be able to identify and [explain] in simple language  . . . that every person across the region can understand what you did, why they did and make sure that it makes sense.”

“We don’t want two per cent of persons knowing what is going on across the region, or that the findings sit in a folder at the Ministry of Education, but that they engage the students because without us, there is no CXC and no purpose for it. Meeting with us and respecting us is necessary. If there is a need to review every subject area, then do that,” Howell added.

(kareeemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)