Protect CARICOM Students: We Demand Fairness in CXC E-testing Exams
Hardship‑Allowance Grading • Governance Reform • Accountability • Student Protection

To:

CARICOM Heads of Government
COHSOD - The Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) of CARICOM

CARICOM Ministries of Education

Secretary‑General, CARICOM

Chairman, CXC Council
Registrar & CEO, CXC

FROM: Parents, Students, Teachers, Citizens and Friends of CARICOM 

 
Executive Summary: Why this petition matters

In January 2026, thousands of CARICOM students were subjected to unfair, chaotic, and mentally and emotionally harmful conditions during the new CXC CSEC Mathematics and English A Paper 2 hybrid exams — and the CSEC Maths e‑Paper 1.

Students faced malfunctioning CXC software, inadequate devices, poor Wi‑Fi, no mock exams, no pilot testing, and no hard‑copy of exam paper backups. Many endured hours‑long delays, confusion, and exam conditions that demoralised students, heightened student anxiety and must have negatively impacted their exam performance, thereby violating global ICT and testing best‑practice standards.

Despite widespread evidence of the clear student disadvantage due to these e-testing conditions, CXC publicly and callously denied responsibility in the media. CARICOM Ministries of Education are silent.  This follows the 2020 grading crisis and repeated annual exam paper and grading errors, exam paper security breaches and other CARICOM-wide, large scale annual challenges since 2019, revealing deeper quality assurance, governance, accountability and communication failures. 

Despite widespread evidence of these unfair exam conditions causing clear student disadvantage, CXC publicly and callously denied responsibility in the media. CARICOM Ministries of Education are silent. 

CARICOM children deserve better: they deserve fairness, protection, and an exam system that safeguards their mental wellbeing and academic future.

We therefore call for: hardship‑allowance grading by CXC; a public apology to students; evidence‑based ICT readiness in each school/exam centre,  before any future hybrid or e‑testing exams in each CARICOM jurisdiction; and urgent governance reform of CXC's management - internally, as well as governance reform of its external oversight by CARICOM.

 
Petition 

In January 2026, thousands of CARICOM students were abruptly subjected to an inadequately tested new hybrid exam format for CXC CSEC Mathematics and English A Paper 2. The rollout — online exam paper with handwritten scripts — was poorly prepped and communicated, and therefore predictably chaotic. Students became experimental subjects in an effective live pilot, contrary to global ICT and exam‑administration best practice standards.

Too many students faced:
• Little prior notice
• No mock exams or pilot testing
• Incompatible and/or insufficient devices
• Malfunctioning CXC software
• No hard‑copy exam paper backups at exam start
• Slow or failing Wi‑Fi
• Inability in manipulating digital diagrams on Maths exam
• Delays of 2–3 hours, and much longer for too many students, with some students waiting in hot conditions without sustenance
• High stress for students, invigilators, teachers, ministry representatives, and parents

These testing conditions, and predictable challenges, heightened student stress and anxiety, and thus did not meet global best practice testing standards for fairness, validity, or reliability. These testing conditions did not reflect a demonstration - by both CXC and COHSOD/CARICOM Ministries of Education - of a duty of care to CARICOM's children.  COHSOD/Ministries of Education would have presumably approved the CXC e-testing for CARICOM.

Testing experts advise that, especially for computational subjects such as Maths, the Paper 2 exam content would have to first change, to fairly address the change to online exam modality. This was not done.

CXC’s public claim that “no student was disadvantaged” ignored the lived experiences of thousands of children and callously dismissed CXC’s shared responsibility for exam administration.

The January CSEC Maths e‑Paper 1 also saw serious issues for too many students:
• Invigilator errors
• Use of normally prohibited calculators allowed for some students
• No working paper or visible clock. Insufficient devices
• Slow Wi‑Fi causing delayed downloads
• Students writing calculations on their own skin due to lack of paper

These challenges would have led to student anxiety and almost certainly have negatively affected student performance. This is unacceptable and damaging to CARICOM’s reputation.

CARICOM Ministries of Education have been silent regarding these myriad e-testing challenges. Their nation's children - future voters -  and their parents who vote need to see that these Ministries care for them and will fight for their children's best interests first, more than just agreeing to whatever CXC wants.

We value CXC’s legacy — but protecting our children must come first.

There has been a repeated litany of CXC exam management problems:

• These 2026 e-testing failures;
• The 2020 CXC grading crisis which negatively impacted 10s of 1,000s of CARICOM students with no real redress;
• The initial decision to proceed with 2021 CAPE and CSEC exams as if the covid pandemic had never happened and seriously impacted learning, decision changed only at the last minute; 
• Repeated annual errors in exam papers, (eg 2024 CAPE Chemistry Unit 2, Paper 2; & 2025 CSEC PoA Paper 2); 
• 2023 CSEC Maths Paper 2 Security breach and another 2023 exam security breach;
• Annual errors in exam grading;
• Annual repeats of an estimated 55/60 multiple choice questions for CSEC Maths Paper 1 exams and similar repeats of other subjects' Paper 1 exam questions, witht these past papers being easily accessible;
•  And more.
• These show that fundamental reform of CXC's exams' quality control and other management is overdue.

 
What We Are Calling For

We urge CXC, CARICOM's COHSOD and/or individual Ministries of Education in CARICOM to collectively act swiftly and compassionately to:

1. Hardship‑Allowance Grading Accommodation by CXC
Ensure those students, disadvantaged as previously documented, are not penalised for systemic failures beyond their control.

2. Public Apology to students
Acknowledge student harm, and commit to preventing recurrence, consistent with global testing best practice.

3. Evidence‑Based Readiness for each school/exam centre Before Any Future Hybrid or e‑Testing Exams:
• Pilot testing
• Mock exams
• Adequate devices
• Strong adequate Wi‑Fi, adequate devices and other ICT capacity
• Teacher and invigilator training
• Hard‑copy exam paper backups
• Clear plans, well communicated, for May/June 2026 exams

4. Governance Reform at CARICOM & CXC
• Replace COHSOD’s outdated consensus model
• Allow CARICOM Ministries of Education in member countries to opt out of consensus decisions by COHSOD governing CXC exam administration, if national ICT or other infrastructure is unprepared for e-testing and/or it is otherwise in their students' best interest to so opt out
• Establish an independent external expert regulator of CXC
• Maximise inclusion of students, teachers, and parents substantively in CXC exam decision‑making and education policy more broadly
• Strengthen transparency, accountability, communication by CXC and Ministries of Education and quality assurance in CXC's exam admin

Public trust and confidence in the education system are eroding, with growing calls for CXC leadership change, and calls to make this issue a CARICOM-wide election issue. There are even increased calls for a return to Cambridge exams. If CARICOM is serious about education transformation, this reform cannot be delayed.

 
Why This Matters
We cannot continue to accept an exam system that harms children’s mental health, undermines their confidence, and repeats preventable errors.
We cannot risk permanent damage to public trust in CXC and CARICOM’s education system.
We cannot continue with governance and annual significant quality‑control failures in exam papers and grading that demoralises and discourages innocent children, putting their mental health at risk.

This is a matter of child rights:

Our children deserve fairness.
Our children deserve accountability.
Our children deserve better.

We owe it to them.

 
Call to Action:

Add your name. Stand for fairness. Protect our children.