A review of the grades released by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has found that the reason behind the ungraded scores received by students was late, and in some cases non submission, of school based assessments (SBAs) by teachers.
Schools across the Caribbean have lodged complaints about this year’s CXC results in almost all of the subject areas. Students have also requested reviews of their final grades.
CXC altered the format of the Caribbean Secondary Certificate Examination by not including a long paper but requiring the submission of entire SBAs for to be graded. Usually, only a sample of the SBAs is used to make up the final grade.
Speaking on the explanation given by CXC on the ungraded results that were received, Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, said on Tuesday that it appeared some teachers did not submit the SBAs on time or failed to submit them at all.
“Of the 20 schools that had ungraded marks, for most of them, it was because our teachers and our central Ministry failed in making sure those SBAs reached CXC or reach them correctly. So, it was not the students’ fault. It was the way it was delivered and submitted and that will not happen again.”
The Minister also said that there would be more training and monitoring of teachers in the future. She added that Marcel Hutson, the Chief Education Officer, is collaborating with the Assistant Chief Education Officer, Secondary Exams Division, to ensure that there is accurate and high quality marking and that the timetable for submissions is kept.
CXC is still in the process of reviewing the grades for other students and has made moves to address those who received ungraded results.
