-CXC CEO discloses, announces September roll out of new qualification

THE Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) on Tuesday announced the start of the May-June 2025 examinations period with over 100,000 candidates registered.

This was disclosed by CXC’s Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Dr Wayne Wesley, during a virtual press conference.

According to Dr Wesley, the examination season begins with the customary oral examinations in modern foreign languages such as Spanish, French and Portuguese.

For the 2025 period, he revealed that over 100,000 candidates from across the region have been registered to sit more than 600,000 subject entries and this will be a mammoth undertaking by the council.

“The team has worked hard to ensure that everything is in place for the successful administration of the examination,” he said.

With this, the CEO offered words of encouragement to candidates sitting this year’s examination and urged them to remain cool and calm while being confident that their preparation work will take them through successfully.

Meanwhile, Dr Wesley told the news conference that the council is going through a strategic repositioning which marks the beginning of its transformation effort focusing on modernising its governance system and organisational redesign.
As part of this effort, he disclosed that a new qualification has been developed called the Caribbean Targeted Education Certificate (CTEC) which will be at the same standard as CSEC and CAPE.

“It is our qualification that currently will be at the same standard as CSEC and CAPE. It will be utilising the same syllabus. It will focus on related and relevant learning outcomes as well as providing for progressive achievement of competencies,” he said.

According to him, the certificate will be a micro-credential and will be awarded to students who have successfully achieved a module.

Delving into details, Dr Wesley stated, “The approaches to CTEC will be subject based and this will be assessment based on the syllabus qualifications that we offer, and it is discipline specific…CTEC will be a based approach where assessment will be based on competencies achieved through real-life scenarios and situations.”

He went on to add that a lot more flexibility will be available to students in achieving and demonstrating the level of competencies
acquired.

The process for implementation has started with both Mathematics and English, which he noted will be done across three modules, all of which will be assessed independently. The combination of all three will provide for the award of full certification.

While a lot of work has happened already, the pilot for the CTEC certification is expected to be rolled out in September, 2025, with the first certificate to be awarded in 2026 when the first set of candidates will be writing that examination.

“The CTEC outcomes offer several benefits, that of a better-equipped workforce, cluster of related and relevant competencies that students ought to acquire. The validation of progress and achievement as they progress through the school system, employment and or matriculation as well as maintaining the same standard of the qualification catering to individualised goals,” he remarked.