After a relatively normal first term, albeit one that started later than usual, the significant increase in COVID-19 cases at the start of this month has led to yet another late start to the second term and a return to the online classes format across the board.
Last year’s switch to online teaching created challenges for both students and teachers in getting them ready for the Common Entrance Exam and the Caribbean Examinations Council’s CSEC and CAPE examinations. Teachers of Class Three students preparing to write the Common Entrance in 2021 were told to focus on revision when the country first went to the online format but now have to scramble and complete the syllabus for the exam.
We are all well aware of the challenges CXC had, some of which are still unresolved even as a new batch of students prepares to take exams this year, and threats of possible legal action loom.
Taking all these and other factors in consideration, both President of the Barbados Union of Teachers, Pedro Shepherd and his counterpart at the Barbados Secondary Teachers Union, Mary Ann Redman, have called for the cancellation of both the Common Entrance and CXC exams.
Ironically, just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit our shores last March, the Ministry of Education was considering scrapping the Common Entrance and was about to start discussions on what would replace it.
Those discussions have now not come to pass, so from that perspective alone it may be impractical to scrap that exam at this point, and ideally, with the date moved from early May to June 22, teachers and students have been given a little more time to complete the Eleven-Plus syllabus as well as do the additional classes that have become the norm over the years.
Of course, how much progress they make will be determined to some degree by the way the pandemic plays out between now and then.
The BSTU head called for the cancellation of the CSEC and CAPE exams. In her view: “Really and truly it is not really up to CXC (Caribbean Examinations Council) to make that decision about pushing back exams.
“They are an examining body so their business is to have exams. It is for the regional governments to decide, looking at the reality of the COVID situation in their respective countries and recognizing the impact that it has had negatively on the ability of teachers to properly instruct syllabi.
“In the BSTU, our position is that they should really seek to defer exams this year. The reality is that children who are presently in fifth form, last year only had two terms of teaching because the last term would have been online and it was a term of revision and consolidation.
“Because of the digital divide, we had teachers and students without devices or others without connectivity and therefore they were not able to benefit in the way that they should have.”
Certainly, these issues need to be ventilated as we expect they are behind closed doors
Jeff Broomes, the retired veteran educator and former Principal of the Alexandra School and Parkinson Memorial Secondary School, called for further discussion before we make any rash decisions.
He said: “We have to use our intellect to make sure we seek solutions. I do not support cancelling CXC; neither do I support cancelling Common Entrance.
“If we had systems in place where we could have automatic transfer that would be okay, but we don’t. Just block it? No, I don’t agree with that.
“We need to sit down, and reason, and think about the implications of that decision. The implications as far as I am concerned are not good. There would be a blockage in the system.
“Children who are four and five years old wouldn’t be able to go to school. And those in fourth and fifth form would not be able to move on to sixth form or university or whatever.”
There is much to consider, but clearly, our children’ best interests must be the primary determining factor whatever arrangements are made for this year’s exams.
Those tests must accurately reflect the syllabus and challenge our children to deliver of their best as they prepare for the next level in their journey.
Further, the controversies across the region over the grading of last year’s CXC modified exams remain fresh, and every effort must be made to avert any such occurrence this year.
To the best of our knowledge, the CXC has still not outlined how they plan to deal with the exams this year, but perhaps they can learn from their predecessors in this market, the Cambridge International Examinations Board in the United Kingdom.
In light of the pandemic, the syndicate announced: “Teachers will assess students in May and the start of June, and then submit grades mid-June. Exam boards would then perform quality assurance and students will receive their results in mid-July.
“Students will be allowed to appeal these grades, and in the first case, the appeals will be heard by the school. Coursework should still be completed, and could inform the teacher-assessed grade (TAG).”
These grades, like the 2020 CAGs, will be indistinguishable from other years. The consultation document proposes that teachers won’t be asked to predict what students might have achieved if the pandemic had not happened, and instead will be basing their assessments on the “standard at which their students are performing”.
The consultation proposes that the TAGs are evidence-based, using a breadth of evidence, and this evidence needs to be recorded. Exam boards will be supporting teachers with guidance and training, including supplying exam papers that teachers can use, and offering moderation sampling.
The papers provided by the exam boards will be similar in style and format to those in normal exam papers, and provide a range to allow teachers to choose topics that their students have covered.
Teachers will also be able to use formal tests and mock exam results, and any completed coursework required for their subject. Work completed closer to the end of the academic year will be given more weighting.
It is an option CXC can consider, if they have not already done so.
As Broomes said: “This is January; let us give the children all the support that we can to get them to where they have to be at.
“I am not throwing up my hand in the air and saying that the children are not ready because I think we should do whatever we can to get the children ready.”
We agree.
