Once again, CXC's credibility to deliver transparent, well-deserved and fair results come under question. One can recall that just in May 2019 there were instances of students cheating in exam rooms with textbooks and mobile devices. 

Fast forward to almost one year later. A global pandemic. International exams such as GCSE, AS and A-levels have been cancelled. But what does our regional counterpart do? They propose to implement a strategy to grade students based solely on SBA and Multiple Choice Exam marks. A recipe for total disaster!

Firstly, SBAs are done with the intention of improving a student's overall grade. They are given tasks to complete under guidance of the teachers and with the possibility of repeating them multiple times so as to earn the highest possible score. The weakest of students can easily gain 20% here. 

Secondly, and most worrying, is the issue of multiple choice examinations. Just by random guessing, someone has chance of scoring 25%. How can this be a fair process to those who know their content? How can this be a measuring stick of capability? In addition to this, it is well-known that CXC's multiple choice exams are taken from a very narrow databank, i.e, over the years, it can be seen that many questions repeat. I've done an analysis and found that an average of 12 questions repeat on CSEC Math Paper One - 20%.

Then there's the matter of e-exams. Not everyone has access to computer systems. Not all schools have robust internet capabilities. This is the Caribbean, this is not Europe. How can we protect against widespread cheating on a computer system when we could have hardly protected ourselves from cheating last year? Another recipe for disaster. 

The Council seriously needs to rethink it's position on this strategy and consult with the relevant stakeholders. The integrity of the body once again comes under the microscope, and hopefully, it's done correctly this time around. It would be much wiser to postpone the exams until August and get many more markers on board. I'm sure the world would be cognizant of the reason for late matriculation at tertiary institutions and measures would be put in place to address same.

Let's not put our exams in jeopardy of being labelled inconsistent, sloppy or even fraudulent. We say NO to only sitting a Paper 1 exam!