— recommendation made for examination body to moderate all SBAs, IAs

THE Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) on Sunday boldly committed to a review and revamping in the coordination of the processes that go into the administering and grading of its examinations.

A draft report from a recent review of the council’s 2020 examinations contains some 23 recommendations.
Among the recommendations is that CXC consider permanently moderating 100 per cent of the assessments, particularly the School Based Assessments (SBAs) and Internal Assessments (IAs). It was also recommended that there should be training and workshops for better coordination and communication between teachers and other stakeholders involved in the process.
“The relationship within the system must now be made more efficient,” said CXC chairman Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, commenting on the findings of the report during a virtual press conference on Sunday.

“We must be conscious that the CXC is but the apex of a complex eco system. The public in general has become accustomed to describing the entire system as CXC, though CXC is but a part. It is necessary for the eco system to undergo an audit review. That is all of the parts of the system of which CXC is a component. The relations of all of these components must be audited, reviewed and enhanced.”

Professor Beckles confirmed that the council received the draft report from the review team on Friday and shared that the council held a meeting on Saturday to discuss the findings. He disclosed that the council is now expected to meet with Ministers of Education from across the Caribbean on Monday and has committed to releasing a copy of the report to the public on Tuesday.

After the meetings, CXC will be looking to “roll out a public-engagement strategy to begin the healing process,” Professor Beckles said.
“We are working feverishly to have that final report of the review team available to the public. These meetings will enable the review team to have the opportunity to finalise its report which we are mindful to release to the public on Tuesday,” Professor Beckles declared.

IMMEDIACY
Several of the recommendations in the report are expected to be implemented immediatey, including an increase in the personnel capacity at the council, particularly as it pertains to the handling of incoming queries and requests for reviews from students, to enable faster resolutions.
The closing date for submission of queries and review requests has been extended from October 23 to November 6, while the council has also taken the decision to slash their review fee by half, from US$30 to US$15. Persons who have already paid the full fee for previous reviews will be refunded their reductions.
The rule for a full refund in cases where the student receives an improved grade will still apply.
However, also as a new feature, there will be no reduction of any grade already awarded. Customarily, a review of a grade could result in a student’s grade remaining the same, being improved or being reduced.

The council is also expected to set up a virtual portal, whereby students will be able to submit their queries and review requests directly to CXC as opposed to previously having to go through their country’s Ministry of Education (MoE).
Professor Beckles was joined at Sunday’s press conference by CXC Registrar, Dr. Wayne Wesley.
In the over two hours engagement, the pair were extensively grilled by journalists from all across the Region, for answers on what lead to the unprecedented backlash that the council saw over results allocated to students in its 2020 exams, particularly the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE).

BREAKDOWN IN COMMUNICATION
They offered that much of the situation that developed involved a breakdown in communication and coordination of the SBAs/IAs, given changes that were made for the 2020 examinations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The communication of the various elements of the system could have been more effective, given the structural change and assessment. There remains a measure of misunderstanding of the nature of the changes, particularly within the school setting. These misunderstandings contributed to a high measure of anxiety in respect to performance by students,” Professor Beckles noted.
Variances between the SBA/IA grades awarded by teachers and the grade awarded by CXC after moderation were said to have largely contributed to the high reports of less than expected grades that many students experienced this year; while breakdowns over the SBA submission contributed to the heightened “ungraded” results that were seen.
Noting that “it makes no sense to point fingers in terms of who is responsible,” Professor Beckles said that going forward will require that all stakeholders “take collective responsibility to identify and rectify the challenges for the mutual well-being of the entire structure.”
For the 2020 exams due to modifications, CXC opted to review 100 per cent of the SBAs/IAs done by students, whereas customarily only selected samples are moderated. The SBAs are usually marked by the teachers in each respective country and the complete list of scores, along with the samples are sent to CXC.
Dr. Wesley shared that this year the moderation saw some 66 per cent of the SBA/IA grades awarded by teachers being changed after moderation by CXC; comparatively, 63 per cent were changed last year.

“It is important for us to understand that with the assessments the grade awarded by teachers within the school system would not necessarily be the final grade, such grade would be finalised after the modification process. I understand and appreciate the concerns of candidates who would have been using their SBA grade by teacher as their final grade,” Dr. Wesley noted.
The CXC exams were administered across 20 countries, and though it was not revealed how many out of the 20 countries were affected by the situation, Dr. Wesley confirmed that the situation was widespread, which could have contributed to the unprecedented nature of the situation.
“It gave the regional flavour because in all territories there were instances of ungraded being reported,” Dr. Wesley related.

INCREASE
According to Dr. Wesley, though this year saw an increase of reports for queries and requests for reviews, it still accounted for less than two per cent of the overall grades awarded across the Region.

According to Dr. Wesley’s statistics, for 2020, CXC has thus far received 2353 requests for reviews for CAPE representing 1.97 per cent of the grades awarded. However, that is more than double the 1073 review requests that were received last year, but is closer to the 2173 requests received in 2018.
For 2018 and 2019, the review requests accounted for 0.02 per cent and 0.88 per cent respectively.

However, there was an over 300 per cent increase in the ungraded results as compared to last year with 757 ungraded in 2019, but 2296 ungraded in 2020. Statistics were not provided for 2018.
In terms of queries, for CAPE there was also an unprecedented increase, though only 659 queries have been received so far, which represents 0.55 of the cohort, it represents an over 1800 per cent increase over the 36 queries (0.03 per cent) received last year, and still some distance away from the 71 queries (0.001 per cent) received in 2018.
For CSEC, the 2550 review requests that the council has received thus far for this year accounts for 0.46 per cent, but represents an increase of over 350 per cent from the 720 requests (0.13 per cent) received last year. However, it does not supersede 2813 review requests (0.01 per cent) received in 2018.

This year, CSEC experienced the absence of 30, 108 students, whereas last year there were 35, 958 absentees recorded. The “ungraded” results saw an increase, moving from 8062 in 2019 to 11, 578 in 2020.