— hoping for speedy resolution to CXC discrepancies

STUDENTS and teachers of Port Kaituma Secondary School, Region One, are hoping for a speedy resolution to the discrepancies they discovered in the results received recently from the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC).

According to reports received by this newspaper, at Port Kaituma Secondary, 62 candidates received ungraded results for the Mathematics and English Language (English A) Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations they wrote earlier this year.

Twenty-one of those candidates also recorded similar ungraded results for the Principles of Business (PoB) Examination.

An educator who was responsible for the submission of the students’ School-Based Assessments (SBAs) told the Guyana Chronicle that the broadsheet by the school from the CXC indicated that the ungraded students did not submit their SBAs.

However, the educator refuted this claim, pointing out that “When you submit the SBAs online, you would get a confirmation email which states that the SBA was successfully uploaded at the specific time.”

That Region One educator provided screenshots to the Guyana Chronicle of the confirmation email received after the students’ Mathematics and PoB SBAs were all uploaded to the CXC portal before the sitting of the examinations. The confirmation email showed the students’ names and that the SBAs were submitted since May 22, 2020- before the July/August 2020 postponed sitting of the examinations.

Despite not receiving a confirmation email for the English SBAs submitted, the school was informed by the Ministry of Education (MoE)’s Examinations Division that there is a field on the CXC’s SBA portal which will show whether those documents were uploaded. And indeed when the educator and his colleagues checked, it was seen that those SBAs were submitted.

Due to the challenges and potentially devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the CXC decided against having students write the Paper Two examination, as per normal. As such, these SBAs, along with the Paper One, Multiple Choice Examinations the students wrote were what decided what Grade each student would garner.

“The children are heartbroken,” the educator bemoaned, adding: “Their parents are saying that they aren’t eating.” For the Mathematics and English subject areas, in particular, students are especially distressed, as these are, arguably, the two crucial subjects needed as they navigate post-secondary school life.

ANGRY AND FRUSTRATED

Teachers too, he said, are angry and frustrated because it feels as though the CXC is blaming them for the discrepancies by stating that the SBAs were not submitted.

“Something went wrong with CXC somewhere along the line because we have confirmation for Mathematics and PoB and we have proof that the English SBAs were uploaded,” the educator said, noting that “CXC made a mistake or CXC website crashed or something.”

A Facebook post made by the Teacher in Charge of the Port Kaituma secondary school, AnnMarie Daniels, acknowledged the concerns raised by a number of the students for these three subject areas. The teacher assured that the local education authorities were looking into the matter, and she too was hoping for a speedy resolution.

On Thursday, students from three of Guyana’s Grade ‘A’ schools- Queen’s College, The Bishops’ High, and the St. Joseph High School- protested against what they said were major discrepancies discovered from the results released by the CXC. These included lower-than-expected grades and ungraded subjects seen from the results garnered from this year’s CSEC and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE).

On Friday, in response to numerous concerns raised by students, teachers, parents, and even Education Ministries across the Caribbean, the CXC held a presser where the specific case of ungraded results was one of the concerns raised. CXC Registrar, Wayne Wesley, said that the concerns are being looked into.

At the presser, it was communicated that there might have been instances where additional information for the SBAs was requested, but not submitted. However, the registrar said that the CXC is working with the local registrars and the Ministries of Education to address those concerns.