#BTColumn – Strategic regional education reform

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.

by Paula-Anne Moore and Khaleel Kothdiwala

Congratulations to the students who obtained their CXC grades on 5th Sept, persevering with education for the 3rd exam cycle within the pandemic. We thank their teachers and all the education stakeholders for their roles in producing these results.

The feedback thus far is that in 2022 there has been a reduction of problematic grades received vs 2020 and 2021, for which we are grateful. However, there are still significant reports of misalignment of expected grades and results. CSEC Maths was particularly problematic, and to a lesser extent CSEC English A, Social Studies, and CAPE Communication Studies grades.

It would also be useful for CXC to publicly provide ASAP 5-year comparison of CSEC and CAPE preliminary grade results so the grades can be put in the context of pre-COVID-19 performance.

CXC’s report on the significant reduction in candidates and increase in children leaving school without certification is deeply concerning and revelatory of the need for fundamental change to CARICOM’s national education systems, inclusive of addressing remedial education needs.

The link between poor education outcomes, challenges to socio-economic mobility and crime, is clear; our current gun crime challenges are likely further evidence of same. Thus, adding yet another (revenue generating) certificate that is of limited utility for job seeking is considered by some as cosmetically appealing, but similar to a plaster on this festering sore.

We find it unfortunate that there was a focus at the CXC results’ ceremony on alleged cheating by students – 35 of approx. 106, 000 (0.0329 per cent) CSEC students and two out of approx. 25,000 (0.00783 oper cent) CAPE candidates.

There was a significant increase in 2022 exam question paper errors reported by principals and teachers, which have far more wide-scale impact and importance to most past and prospective candidates, as this issue raises major concerns re confidence in CXC’s quality assurance. CXC continues to be publicly silent re these exam errors.

What are the reasons for significant reduction year on year since 2019 of registered CXC exam candidates – is it largely due to children’s inadequate education access due to the pandemic or is it due to parents choosing alternatives to CXC?

While we recognise the global acceleration in the use of the online modality of education, due to Covid-19’s impact, we need to ensure that the rollout of etesting is only effected when the national education resources, inclusive of technological infrastructure and interface with CXC, already stressed by the pandemic can cope.We are still awaiting confirmation that those children traumatised by the widespread etesting challenges in Barbados had their grading adjusted to account for this disadvantage.

The public communication from CXC on 5th September left most of the parental and student concerns which have erupted during the pandemic era unaddressed. Communication remains rare and one-way, and the consensus is that education reform needs to include a change in CXC’s governance to make it accord with modern best practice: external independent expert regulation to make CXC resilient, accountable, responsive and transparent to its main stakeholders, the tax-paying public, the students and their parents – those whose needs CARICOM and CXC were created to serve.

The following is reiterated as evidence of a need for CXC’s governance and corporate culture reform:

1) 2020 CXC grading fiasco. 98 per cent of tens of thousands disadvantaged students have their erroneous grades unresolved. These students and their parents will neither forget nor forgive this treatment.(And they vote – if they remain CARICOM resident).

2) 2021 had high numbers of erroneous, still unresolved, grades

3) 2022 had significantly more errors on exam papers. 2021 and 2022 exam papers and syllabi were not changed to reflect the pandemic challenges.

4) 2022 exam plans were ‘business as usual’ until the very last minute, despite the three-year education and other challenges of the pandemic era and at least a year of sustained advocacy for responsiveness.

5) The August 2022 ‘CXC ‘Repositioning Project Seminar’ including only academics, with a paucity of other perspectives from parents and students. Diversity of stakeholder input has been proven to enhancecorporate/institutional decision-making.

6) The lessons learned from the pandemic experience mark a real transformational opportunity for CXC, and CARICOM’s national and regional education systems. We revert to pre-pandemic status quo/business as usual in the 2022 – 2023 academic year at our children’s peril.

The lasting impact of COVID on education is our ‘new normal’ and we need to examine how responsive CXC’s product offering can be made in recognition of this. If we wish to be strategically competitive globally, our testing and wider education strategy needs to observe what the best practice global education pandemic response has been, and adapt accordingly, or CARICOM risks being left behind.

The following UK commitment to empathetic, student-centred fairness in testing, is informative and has been replicated world-wide, less so in CARICOM:

“We’ve recognised the fact that young people have faced huge disruptions. There have been adaptations. OFQUAL has reflected it in their… grading”. Cambridge Exam Topics were also provided 3 months before exams. The few exam paper errors were acknowledged by the exam body immediately, with commitments to adjusting grading accordingly.

‘The government and OFQUAL will now need to decide whether to put mitigations in place for next year. The strong indication we are hearing from school and college leaders is that this must happen because next year’s cohort will have also been heavily impacted by Covid-19. This is particularly important given the likelihood of more waves of infections during the autumn
and winter.”’

‘One of the opportunities we’ve identified is the chance to refine the basic education curriculum by reducing the volume of content and making it more relevant to the current generation of learners. The reduced time and resources available to teachers during the pandemic has forced many to determine which aspects of the curriculum are more important to focus on, which could influence national curricula going forward.’’

What have we learned about the COVID-19 impact on education so far? | Cambridge University Press & Assessment

‘The impact of the pandemic on education and assessment will continue to be felt for many years to come. During the pandemic the emphasis shifted away from maintaining standards to enabling this group of students, who experienced extreme disruption, to progress. We may need to be innovative in designing new systems and methods for resetting the (grading) standards and maintaining them in the future.’’

Exam standards and the pandemic— what’s next? | Cambridge University Press & Assessment

Conclusion:

Our consistent 3-year call remains largely unanswered: better transparency, accountability, and external independent regulation to rebuild public trust and confidence in CXC. CXC’s credibility and reputation, and the public trust therein, have been significantly damaged and these are the results: the acceleration of the privatisation of secondary school education, inclusive of the pursuit of alternatives to CXC.

We also understand that CXC candidate registrations in one CARICOM territory were reduced by 75 per cent in 2021 and 2022! This is likely due to the stark contrast in our CARICOM education system with that of our global competitors, in particular responsiveness, fairness and care of students exhibited. We are also at increased risk of ‘brain flight’ of disillusioned students, which is particularly problematic with our low birth rate and NIS woes.

We acknowledge that this status quo is not solely a CXC issue; our entire national and regional ‘education ecosystem’ needs short- to long-term strategic reform to fix its underlying ‘comorbidities of education’.

We would welcome the opportunity to collaborate formally with CXC as referenced by Dr Wesley and Dr Manning at the ceremony of 5th September. This promise was made back in April 2021 when Dr Wesley said personally to me (PAM):

“CXC has a formal governance structure that has been long instituted in the form of National Committee through which parents and students are given the opportunity to voice their concerns and provide feedback.”

The pandemic experience reveals that these National Committees are not fit for purpose as effective stakeholder engagement vehicles, nor sufficiently responsive to the unique pandemic impact on education.

Dr Wesley also told me (PAM) in April 2021: “… a series of town hall meetings are being organised which will also provide a forum for stakeholder dialogue.” These have yet to manifest.

It has been stated that ‘the effect of COVID-19 on education systems also provides opportunities to redesign them to be more resilient and equitable in the post-pandemic world.’

We await effective collaboration with CXC to make this a reality in CARICOM.We thank the Barbados METVT for engaging with us in a meaningful manner during the pandemic and look forward to a continuation of same.

Paula-Anne Moore BSc (Hons) UWI, MBA (Merit) Durham Parent Advocate and  Spokesperson/Coordinator. Khaleel Kothdiwala Student Advocate and Liaison The Group of Concerned Parents, Barbados The Caribbean Coalition for Exam Redress.