Latest update November 10th, 2024 1:00 AM
Dec 30, 2013 News
– CXC Registrar
“Education in the 21st century is no longer about the top tier.” This was the observation of Registrar of the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC), Dr. Didacus Jules, as he spoke at a recent press conference held at the Pegasus Hotel. According to Dr. Jules, rather than merely looking at the top performers, there is the need to look at a wider body of candidates. “In the 21st century, success should be measured by the success of the cohort; the extent to which the cohort is making progress,” asserted the Registrar.
He however noted that when CXC seeks to highlight the performances of candidates on its website (www.cxc.org), it is usually not what is done in a single particular year but rather a state of affairs that would have occurred in the past. This response was in fact aimed at clarifying damning reports, which suggest that the performance of candidates across the Caribbean, particularly in the areas of Maths and English, leaves much to be desired. “When we present results, what you are seeing there (online) is not something that happened in one year; we are only picking it out…it is like taking the temperature way after the fever has occurred and all of the build up that has led to that fever,” Dr. Jules explained.
Moreover, he underscored that persons must seek to understand that when it comes to education, there are no quick fix solutions.
According to him, education requires not only investments but it warrants a great deal of time before the desired results can be realised. “We have to understand that education is what I call an eco-system. Some of these problems start from the pre-school level going up…deficiencies that begin at the early stages of education, if not corrected, become more and more enlarged as you go up the ladder,” noted Dr. Jules.
However, in the quest to address what he described as “the immediate problem” at the level of CXC, a number of strategic measures have been implemented. He disclosed that CXC had designed in 2012 a Regional Literacy and Numeracy Strategy intended to help improve the performances in these subject areas. The Strategy, according to him, was shared with all the Governments of the Region. “That was a fairly holistic plan that involved a number of measures some of which were short-term and some of which were long-term to help address this…you would notice that several Governments have declared literacy and numeracy initiatives,” said Dr. Jules.
He pointed out that right here in Guyana, Education Minister, Priya Manickchand has been very keen about some of the proposals that were made by CXC including the provision of instructional support materials to schools as part of the short-term intervention. “That is why for example we are making the syllabus available, free to all candidates, to all schools, to all teachers because part of the problem too is that there is insufficient coverage of the syllabus…if you only cover half the syllabus then how can you reasonably expect to pass the subject?” questioned Dr. Jules.
As part of the long-term interventions, he revealed that there are some more strategic things that have been done that are already beginning to show indications of success. This, he said, includes the replacement of the Common Entrance with the Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment (CPEA) which is showing some very useful improvements in students’ core competencies in literacy and numeracy because of the methodology it embraces. “We are encouraging member states to come on board the CPEA because it is not just an exam, it is an integrated methodology of how you teach, how people learn and how you assess,” said Dr. Jules who noted that these are all strategic moves at improving the level of education.
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