-SBA submission time extended to June 30

THE Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), on Wednesday, announced that the 2021 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE), which were originally slated to begin on June 14, is being pushed back by two weeks and is now expected to commence on June 28.
CXC Chairman, Professor, Sir Hilary Beckles, noted that the decision to push back the date stemmed from stakeholder consultations held recently in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the volcanic eruption in the St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which largely affected the island and several other sister islands, including Barbados.
He disclosed that a special council meeting, convened on Tuesday, accepted and reviewed a report from CXC’s School Examinations Committee that made several recommendations on the strategy for the 2021 regional examinations, the major one being the two-week timeline shift for the examinations.
Beckles stated that the council, in making this decision, took into consideration the current health and natural disaster issues across the Caribbean and the potential psychological impacts they could have on student learning and preparedness for the 2021 examinations.
“There’s a volcanic situation in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and then there’s a state of emergency in Trinidad in respect of the COVID management and all of this including the impact of the volcanic ash on the Barbados environment. So, these were the early, clear and pressing issues that really made it clear to us that there needs to be an adjustment in the timeframe,” stated Beckles.

He noted that while the majority of the countries expressed their country’s readiness, several others noted that their students were not prepared for the examinations and requested as much as a five-week delay. Beckles stated that consultation was held and the decision was taken to have the extension be no more than two weeks.
“Some countries wanted a little more than the two weeks, some wanted three weeks, some wanted five weeks, so there was just diversity based on the specifics of each country’s position, but we all realized that practicality was necessary. We had to be practical in each domestic environment and each country but we also had to realize that there was another level of practicality where we had to deliver an examination across the region. The majority of the countries were saying we are ready now and we don’t want a delay, but they recognized the specifics of other countries that needed more time for their students,” Beckles explained.
Meanwhile, Registrar of CXC, Wayne Wesley, stated that the council being advised from its recent consensus, made its decision for the timeframe of the extension that would benefit all stakeholders involved in an effort to ensure that no student is disenfranchised during the 2021 examinations.
He noted that CXC, in addition to the extension for the commencement of the examinations, also decided on several other policy changes to ensure that all students are adequately prepared for maximum performance.

The council approved the extension for submission of School Based Assessments (SBA) for CSEC and CAPE students to June 30, 2021. Additionally, students who are desirous of not writing the examinations in 2021 have the option of deferring to January or June 2022; the deadline for candidates to register their intent to defer has been further extended to the May 31, 2021.
Additionally, Wesley noted that the council has been reviewing the concerns and queries raised by education ministries across the Caribbean in relation to the broad topics for the examinations’ Paper Twos, and intends to provide a review and clarity no later than May 28, 2021. The topics for Paper Two of the examinations were released on May 8, five weeks before the initial June 14, 2021 date for the first examination. He further noted that in addition to the concessions that CXC would have already put in place to facilitate the candidates in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, further consideration will be given during the grading process to account for the likely psycho-social impacts on students’ performance to ensure that they are not disenfranchised. Additionally, he stated that the 2021 CSEC and CAPE examinations will feature both Papers One and Two for each subject, unlike the unprecedented ‘Paper One only’ that occurred at the 2020 sitting of the examinations owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the examinations taking a familiar pre-COVID-19 format, students are required to submit SBAs or Internal Assessments (IAs) where necessary; this excludes private candidates who will be undertaking the examinations’ Paper Three.
Considering the fact that COVID-19 is still prevalent, the examination council has sought to make work easier by reducing the requirements for SBAs by as much as 50 per cent for some subjects.