CXC irregularities to spur action

The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) is reporting an increase in irregularities for this year’s sitting of examinations.

Director of Operations Dr Nicole Manning made the disclosure during Friday’s results ceremony in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Manning said there was a 400 per cent increase for the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) and a 100 per cent increase in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC).

“And this is where we’re looking at things like the utilisation of cellular phones in the exams, and so on,” the director said, urging candidates to refrain from taking their phones into examination rooms, “among other things”.

She did not specify the other aspects of irregularities.

Registrar and Chief Executive Officer Dr Wayne Wesley said the issue could be combated with invigilators enforcing a stricter environment for exams.

“To cut down on that, we’ll have to just continue working with our invigilators and communication with our candidates about what is permitted into the examination room. What you can take there and what you can’t,” Wesley told The Gleaner when asked about CXC’s plan to limit cheating.

“We also have to ensure as well that our invigilators would have been properly briefed as to what is expected in that room and to enforce the rules,” he added.

Meanwhile, Manning said there was also an increase in the level of hardship reported by students amid the coronavirus pandemic.

She said there was a 78 per cent increase for CAPE and a 638 per cent increase for CSEC as a direct result of the pandemic.

Manning said candidates or family members were directly affected.

“We did see a lot of reports coming in because of even deaths of parents and guardians. We took this into consideration, and none of these candidates would have been disadvantaged,” she said.

Absenteeism also increased among candidates for this year’s sitting of both CAPE and CSEC, resulting in CXC recording its lowest cohort in the last four years.

Manning said that for CAPE, there was a reduction in both candidate and subject entries, moving from 30,398 and 119,356 in 2020 to 27, 750, and 110,020, respectively, this year.

Absentees – those who registered for exams but did not turn up – for CAPE increased to 8.83 per cent.

The figure for 2020 stood at 3.99 per cent; the previous year at 5.23 per cent; and 5.43 per cent in 2018.

For CSEC, there was also a reduction in both candidate and subject entries.

That reduction resulted in 103,445 candidate entries and 502,859 subject entries. In 2020, there were 122,248 candidate entries and 554,157 subject entries.

CSEC absentees increased to 11.23 per cent, moving from 5.35 per cent in 2020. CSEC recorded 7.08 per cent absentees in 2019 and 7.39 in 2018.

There were 1,251 deferrals for CAPE and 15,179 for CSEC.

CXC said over BDS$30 million was spent to facilitate this year’s sitting.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com