Caribbean Examinations Council Announces New Dates For Regional Exams

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, March 27, 2020 (CMC) – The Barbados-based Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) said, today, that students, sitting the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) examinations this year, will now do so in July, instead of the usual May/June, as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

CXC Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Wayne Wesley, said all due dates have been extended, by a month, and that during these unprecedented times, offering a modified examination process is key, and will allow students and administrators to remain safe, during this examination season.

The revised processes are subject to change, depending on the COVID-19 landscape.

However, the estimated 50,000 students, sitting CSEC and CAPE in the region, will be administered with one common paper, referred to as Paper 1, and final grades will be derived from this paper and the School-Based Assessments (SBAs).

Private students, who do not prepare SBAs, will be administered with a Paper 3.

The CXC said that 90 percent of subject areas will be administered this way, while the other 10 percent is expected to be administered, as per normal. This 10 percent accounts for modern languages, such as, French, Spanish and Portuguese; Visual Arts; and Human and Social Biology (HSB).

Modern language candidates are still expected to perform their Oral (listening, reading and understanding) examinations, while Visual Arts candidates are expected to submit their journals.

Human and Social Biology does not have an SBA component, so candidates will be expected to sit the Paper 2, as planned.

Several Caribbean countries have closed schools, as they seek to limit the spread of the coronavirius, and CXC said that its strategy will employ e-testing (online and offline), in order to reduce the administration processing time, resulting in the shortest turn-around time for marking and the release of examination results.

In addition, CXC, which was established in 1972 — to conduct such examinations, as it may think appropriate, and award certificates and diplomas, on the results of any such examinations so conducted — said it will provide an opportunity for the timely presentation of grades, to facilitate matriculation to higher education or to access employment.