There is an urgent need for independent scrutiny and a revision of the Caribbean Examinations Council’s (CXC) governing structure, said parents rights advocate Paula-Anne Moore, a vocal critic of the regional exams body.
Her comments come in response to CXC backtracking on its decision to suspend four examination subjects, including green engineering, citing a new plan to boost demand for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and environmentally focused programmes across the region.
Moore, spokeswoman for the Group of Concerned Parents of Barbados and the Caribbean Coalition for Exam Redress, praised regional ministers of education for their intervention, which would have affected a large number of students seeking to earn skills in several subject areas. But she said that the situation was a missed opportunity to implement a thorough overhaul of the 52-year-old regional institution.
She told Barbados TODAY: “We are grateful that the CARICOM ministers of education read CXC the riot act as has been reported, and caused CXC to reverse their decision regarding the STEM technical and vocational studies courses, which they unilaterally discontinued in disrespect even to CARICOM ministers of education.
“This meeting with CXC on June 4th was a missed opportunity by the CARICOM ministers of education to start the process of effective, long-needed overhaul of CXC’s governance and to move towards a layer of independent expert oversight of CXC, similar to what happens in the UK.”
Moore stressed that the body had insufficient accountability to the CARICOM Council of Human and Social Development (COHSOD) and its clients among CARICOM member states, all who have experienced a number of controversies with CXC over the years, with no real change in governance structure being seen.
“[CXC has] poor communications which tend to exhibit aloof callousness and lack of care and concern for children; 20 000 students, parents and teachers signed petitions within a few days regarding 2024 CSEC Maths and ADD Maths exam papers. There has been no update to the alleged CSEC Principles of Accounting Paper 2 security breach. Both CXC and our CARICOM governments appear to have ignored these concerns, based [on] their lack of response or updates,” she said.
“We note that CXC’s Independent Review Team of October 2020 published a report with numerous recommendations, inclusive of enhanced communications with the public. To what extent have these recommendations been addressed by CXC? Have they been reviewed by COHSOD?”
President of the Barbados Union of Teachers Rudy Lovell did not join Moore’s call for an independent oversight body for CXC, but he called for better communication in the future.
“The BUT would want to see greater collaboration between key stakeholders, including ministers of education, [and] the Caribbean Union of Teachers,” Lovell said. “What we note in Barbados and certainly within the teaching population, is that some of the subjects, in particular Mechanical Engineering Technology, is a foundation subject for other subject areas.
If you look at engineering, welding, auto body repairs, steel bending etc, this subject lays the foundation for those subjects.
So to not have that subject being delivered would have been a blow to several industries.”
He added: “If you are saying the subjects are not being taken up by students in the high numbers compared to other subjects, something could have been done by CXC or even regionally to make the subjects more appealing or advertise the subjects [better] to students throughout the region.”
“We also believe that greater emphasis should be placed on technical and vocational education in Barbados, and we were wondering if [we] don’t give these tech [subjects] the same status as the traditional subjects, if this probably led to the decline in students taking up the subjects.”
CXC’s initial plan to discontinue the four examination subjects drew criticism for potentially hindering the region’s capacity in strategic growth areas like STEM and environmentally-focused fields.
The council acknowledged challenges in driving interest in these subjects, including teacher shortages, lack of student interest, inadequate facilities, outdated infrastructure, insufficient practical training, and limited prospects for academic progression. Many universities did not require these subjects for admission, making maths and physics the preferred options, CXC officials also noted.
But in reversing the decision, CXC said at a press conference on Tuesday that it plans to collaborate with governments to boost demand for these new technology and science offerings through effective marketing, highlighting their relevance to the region’s economic competitiveness and sustainable development goals. The strategy involves securing qualified teachers, adequate laboratory facilities, and garnering student interest, aligning with the commitment to drive economies based on climate change resilience, agriculture, food security, and environmental protection.
CXC officials told reporters it was optimistic that the new strategy, coupled with government backing, would increase enrollment in these undersubscribed programmes.
shamarblunt@barbadostoday.bb
