Systems in place to track progress of SBAs

– Education Minister

– to avoid repeat of 2020 CXC saga

Minister of Education, Hon. Priya Manickchand says Guyana has put systems in place to ensure there is no repeat of the 2020 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and the Caribbean Advance Proficiency Examination (CAPE) results disaster.

Following the results of the exams last year, thousands of students in Guyana and across the Region expressed dissatisfaction with their grades. In Guyana, 20 schools in 15 CSEC and CAPE subject areas received ungraded results. It was later discovered that some students did not submit their School Based Assessments (SBAs), while some teachers failed to submit the documents to the examination council.

To avoid a recurrence, the Ministry has implemented a system that will track the progress of each student writing the June exams.

“Right now, the Ministry is compiling reports about what each and every student is doing, and how far along they are with their SBAs, how many were supposed to be finished versus how many are actually finished, to make sure we don’t end up in the disaster we were in in 2020,” she said on the side-lines of an event on Thursday.

Minister Manickchand said a recent announcement by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), is in keeping with the agreement between the Council and Caribbean countries. Given the impact of COVID-19 on the Region, and the devastating volcano eruption in St Vincent and the Grenadines, CXC has made some changes to the upcoming examinations.

Some of these include:

1. Students can defer writing the 2021 examinations until January or June 2022
2. SBA scores can be transferred for use in the next examination sitting, where the subject is offered. The rules pertaining to the reuse of SBA scores for resit candidates remain unchanged.
3.  Candidates may also:

• submit a new SBA
• delay submission of SBAs until the chosen sitting

4. The number of SBAs required for particular subjects have been reduced, and students have until one month before the examinations, to apply for deferral.

Additionally, five weeks before the commencement of the examinations, CXC will share the topics that would be included on Paper 2 for both CSEC and CAPE subjects. 

Minister Manickchand reminded students that all topics covered in the syllabus will be included in Paper One.  She encouraged students to familiarise themselves with all content.