Teachers’ failure to submit SBAs correctly led to ungraded CSEC, CAPE results– Edu. Minister

Twenty schools that received ungraded results in 15 subject areas at this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) directly resulted from the teachers’ actions.

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand on Tuesday said the teachers “failed in making sure those School Based Assessments (SBAs) reached Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) or reach them correctly.”

“So it was not the students’ fault, it was the way it was delivered and submitted,” Manickchand told reporters at the sidelines of an event on Tuesday at State House.

Going forward, the Ministry will be holding teachers more accountable and at a higher level for their students’ performance.

Manickchand said teachers will also be involved in “serious” training and “monitoring” from the Ministry.

“We are talking about people’s future here and we cannot allow sloppiness. We have children here who should have been going in colleges and universities and we have them stalled up now so this is a huge impact,” Manickchand stated.

Of the 20 schools to date, 14 have received exam results.

The Ministry, in a statement on October 02, listed the schools as: Port Kaituma Secondary, Patentia Secondary, Annandale Secondary, New Amsterdam Secondary, Paramakatoi Secondary, Harmony Secondary, Carmel Secondary, Central High School, The Bishops’ High School, Leguan Secondary School and Mahaicony Secondary School.

CXC recently completed an internal review to determine the reason behind the region-wide outcry over discrepancies with the 2020 examination results.

During a media briefing on Sunday last, Chairman of CXC, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, maintained that the modified approach at this year’s exams was educationally and technically thorough.

Minister Manickchand on Tuesday agreed with the Chairman and said, “I don’t believe anything crookish was done, I don’t believe they were mistakes made, I think what happened there was a shock to the system educationally across the region and that was not properly considered in the sitting of the exams and in the setting of the exams.”

The shock the Minister is referring to is the COVID-19 pandemic.

Guyana has requested schoolwide reviews and individual reviews for students once the school indicated that the students could have performed differently.

“Those reviews have been done for free, so if school felt that a student could have done better and they told us about that student we requested that review,” Manickchand said.

The Minister explained the lesson learnt from CXC is that there must be no change to local exams in Guyana without warning and extensive training for teachers and students.

“Going forward we have asked CXC to be very clear with how they mark, what is required of teachers when they are reviewing SBAs and how is it they are weighting subjects.”

Manickchand also supports the 100% moderation of SBAs for next year’s exams.

Schools or students can submit individual requests for review of their grades. The deadline for this submission was extended to November 04.

Additionally, CXC has slashed the price for requests for review by 50%.