Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today.
This article is the second part of three-part analysis of CXC.
by Ralph Jemmott
The Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) was a response to the CARICOM Ministers of Education’s call for a regional examination equivalent to the Cambridge Advanced level.
However, from the beginning, the stipulation was that it should differ from Cambridge “in its philosophical assumptions and consequently in its structure.” A document issued by CXC in May 2000 posited that CAPE, “responds to the mandate from Heads of Government at their meeting in Jamaica in 1997 for a 15 per cent enrolment of the post-secondary age cohort in tertiary level education by the year 2005.” This, of course, was a very worthy objective.
From the beginning, CAPE was an ambitious project with different assumptions and structures. It has faltered, but it has not altogether failed in its objectives. For one thing, it has substantially increased the number of subject disciplines under its ambit and even more importantly, the number of students enrolled in tertiary education.
What is also significant is a recognisable shift from purely academic to technical and vocation disciplines. CXC’s May 2000 document lists some 27 disciplines examined by the Council. These include Art and Design, Environmental Science, Home Economics and Management and Electrical and Electronic Technology.
The Cape 2000 booklet does not elucidate on the “philosophical assumptions” that distinguished it from Cambridge, but the structural change that followed from those “assumptions” was demonstrably obvious. For example, each A level equivalent subject was divided into two Units.
For example, Units 1 and 2 for Chemistry, Maths and Physics if those were three CAPE subjects. Unit one would be done in year one in the Lower Sixth and unit 2 in the second year in the Upper Sixth.
In addition, the CAPE added two expansive single-Unit courses, Caribbean Studies and Communication Studies. These replaced the minimalist General Paper offered by Cambridge, for which there was no strict syllabus, only topics of current interest such as Climate Change.
Few students took the Cambridge General Paper seriously until the Ministry of Education decided that a reasonable performance in the GP was a requirement for a scholarship or exhibition.
The two one-unit courses, one done in year one and the other in year two, were a very different kettle of fish. Unlike the General Paper, Caribbean and Communication Studies are massive courses over-laden with content material from a number of subject disciplines.
The idea was good in that it broadened the scope of scholastic enquiry. Under the Cambridge Syndicate, after fifth form, too many students were prone to concentrate only on their three A level options.
CAPE legitimately aimed to fashion a wider education with greater relevance to the region.
However, it is easy to sit in the examination headquarter and draw up grandiose syllabi without knowing how they actually work in the schools and classrooms.
The two unit idea has not worked well. Cambridge required a final exam at the end of year two in the Upper Sixth. This gave the student almost six terms to mature and prepare for the exam, three in the Lower and almost three in the Upper Sixth.
In both units one and two of CAPE, the student has virtually only two terms before taking the exam, since the tests begin very early in the Trinity or third term.
The problem was compounded by the fact that School and Inter-school sports take up a not inconsiderable part of the second or Hilary term.
With most of the courses overloaded with content, this has, in my opinion, adversely affected both teaching and learning. In the CAPE Handbook, students doing Caribbean Studies are expected to “acquire skills of enquiry, reasoned action, critical analysis, and reflection as they explore common geographical, historical, social, political and economic factors that have shaped different countries of the Caribbean region”.
In an age when students are less inclined to read, the content material in this one unit is very challenging for teachers to cover and for students to assimilate. This is about five times the work previously asked by the Cambridge General Paper.
There is a recognisable inclination to rush through the syllabi inconsistent with sound pedagogy. Students were more likely to seek outside assistance with the SBA’s or to plagiarise printed content material.
A parent once complained to a teacher that he, the teacher, was giving her a lot of homework. The teacher asked her: How come? The parent replied that with all the course work assignments, she had to do a lot of the work for her child.
I doubt that CXC would make the change, but I would personally prefer to see one comprehensive exam done at the end of the Upper Sixth year as was done at Cambridge.
I have also observed that students are tending to learn less incrementally. But this is the age of Units and Modules.
As Mr Owen Arthur once said, “Something does not become valid simply because it becomes fashionable”.
On another occasion he remarked: “Foolishness is foolishness, no matter who said it or how often it is said.’’
Read Part Three in Friday’s Epaper.
Ralph Jemmott is a rretired educator.
