Earlier this month, Barbados initiated a two-week lockdown following an increase of cases on the island. The measure has affected the operations of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), which is based there. This has significantly stymied the review of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) 2020 results being undertaken by the council. The process was set in motion following objections made by students claiming they received “inaccurate” grades.
Guyana’s Education Minister, Priya Manickchand, said today that the government’s hands are tied.
“It’s not something that we can be unsympathetic to, because the world is in this pandemic right now,” she said.
The minister further stated that CXC is an independent regional entity, over which Guyana has no control. Nevertheless, the official said that the government will continue to press for the review’s completion before the country goes into the 2021 examinations.
The CSEC 2020 examination was administered in July and August due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The format for the examination only accounted for Paper One and SBA for school candidates and Paper One, Two/Three for private candidates.
Following CXC’s issuance of preliminary results in September last year, there was an outcry across the Caribbean about those results not being accurate. Many expressed the view that they deserved better grades. There was even talk about taking legal action against the council. The Government of Guyana subsequently demanded that CXC conduct a comprehensive review process.
In providing an update on that process, the Minister said that CXC considered ‘borderline’ cases, for which 6,251 subject entries were positively affected.
She said that a total of 1,258 subject reviews were submitted for CSEC by 500 candidates, of which approximately 90% have been completed. An additional 128 are currently being processed. Grade changes were awarded to 456 grade reviews, while 674 grades remained the same, she told the media today.
The minister further revealed that the customary announcement of grades will not take place for students who sat the 2020 examinations, given that reviews are pending.
“We believe that it would be reckless at this point to make the usual announcement that Guyana makes: the students with the highest number of Grade Ones, because there are students with outstanding reviews that can change that picture. So, if we were to make an announcement, it would be very clumsy,” Manickchand said.
