More questions for CXC

Concern is once again being raised about the deafening silence from the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) on a promised remarking of this year’s exam scripts, which were supposed to be completed more than a week ago.

The recourse promised by the examining body after an Independent Review of this year’s controversial sittings was expected to be the first step in allaying the “angst, heartache, and material dislocation”.

However, student advocate Khaleel Kothdiwala says that so far, he has heard no reports of reviews that were returned to any Barbadian students. He therefore concluded that if there were any, the numbers have been “remarkably few”.

“Students and parents always felt the one-week promise was ambitious at best and thus, all reasonable persons would be willing to work with CXC as they try to work their way through many requests for reviews and queries. However, parents and students can only be understanding of CXC’s position if the council is willing to communicate with us,” the Queen’s College student told Barbados TODAY.

“Neither CXC nor the Ministry of Education has released to the public the number of requests submitted and received, and CXC has not announced how many have been successfully processed. Considering that Friday marks the deadline for submission of requests for reviews, one would hope that next week would see the return of reviews, as well as improved communication from CXC,’’ he added.

Friday also marks a month and a half since the initial CXC results were released, and subsequently challenged by numerous students, parents, and teachers as erroneous. Questions were also raised about the method used to arrive at the final School Based Assessment (SBA) grades under a new system of moderation, as well as a new system used to tabulate the final grades after the removal of the ‘paper two’ component of the exam.

Amid the controversy, CXC Chairman Professor Sir Hilary Beckles assembled an Independent Review Team (IRT), which settled on several conclusions, including the acceptance that a remark of the exam scripts was justified.

However, nearly three weeks later, it is still unclear exactly who has been contracted to re-mark the exams.

“These cannot be the same individuals who were responsible for moderating originally, as one cannot ask persons to review themselves. CXC must tell students and parents the qualifications of those remarking reviews and whether the qualification bar has been raised to the previous level, requiring persons to have a current knowledge of the school environment,” argued Kothdiwala.

“In sum, students demand that which they are rightfully entitled to – basic information on the process that will determine their academic futures. The point has been made time and again, that too much time has passed and too much dislocation and disruption have occurred. In view of this, we appeal, once again, to CXC to do right by the region’s students, and in the meantime, communicate with us. We deserve nothing less!” the student advocate added.

Meanwhile, Lead Committee Spokesperson and Coordinator of the Group of Concerned Parents of Barbados Paula-Anne Moore, the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) President Mary Redman, and her counterpart in the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) Pedro Shepherd have all promised responses to the extended saga.

(kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)