Guyana’s CXC, CAPE entries outstanding - CXC official - Gov’t initiatives will ensure Guyana continues to rake in top awards - Minister Manickchand
CXC Senior Assistant Registrar-Susan Giles highlighted that over the years Guyana has shown a lot of faith and commitment to the programmes offered by CXC, and was among the first to sign onto CXC advanced proficiency programme in 1998.
Giles said that Guyanese students have also been excelling at the examinations, especially in the national awards where students have been raking in the top awards, and the number of entries from Guyana, for both CXC and CAPE, has also been outstanding. “This is one of the few territories where we haven’t seen a contraction in the CAPE entries,” she stated.
Education Minister, Priya Manickchand is joined by the long servicing Guyanese CXC local registrar, examiners, and staff of the exams division.
She was at the time speaking at a 40th anniversary prayer brunch for CXC at the Umana Yana.
Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand said the continuation of the school feeding and the uniform assistance programmes and other initiatives including training for teachers, building schools and providing the necessary equipment and learning materials have a long term fore-seeable benefit on the number of students who will be sitting the CXC examinations in the years to come.
“This will also us continuing our trend of topping the Caribbean every year…we are able to do this because our system through (the special programmes) support our children,” Minister Manickchand said.
She emphasised that CXC might not be aware that most of the students who received the top prizes in Guyana are not necessarily from the wealthiest homes, and this is possibly one of the most distinctive changes with regards to the Guyanese CXC top performers.
Senior Assistant Registrar-CXC, Susan Giles presents an award to Ingrid Fung for her long service as a CXC examiner for English A.
This year marks four decades since the start of the CXC in 1973 in Barbados, and over the years, the exam has changed the way students in the region learn. Since the start of the year, several Caribbean territories have held observances to celebrate CXC’s milestone.
During Guyana’s activity, the Education Ministry gave recognition to the local registrar moderators, examiners and staff of the examination division for their continuous and long service to CXC.
“Because of equal access, because of equity across the system, because of those deliberate policies to make sure children right across Guyana irrespective of what colour you are, or how wealthy your parents are or what school you’re from and which region you’re from – you could access quality education…you have seen how that has produced, over the years, top students from everywhere…we can no longer map where the top student is coming from,” Minister Manickchand highlighted.
Guyanese students coming out on top in the CXC exams are as a result of the investments made by the government in the education sector.
The Minister noted that from the time she sat the CXC exams a lot has changed in relation to the exam itself, and the way Guyana has adapted to those changes.
At the first CXC examination in 1979, former President Bharat Jagdeo was among the just over 5000 Guyanese students who sat the exams, and at that time five subjects were being offered. Now more than 30 are being offered.
The Education Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Delma Nedd pins a broach on Juliet Persico the longest serving local registrar.
The Minister recognised that Guyana has more students sitting the CXC exams now than ever (over 13,000), an indication that the country is moving closer towards achieving universal secondary education. Due to Guyana’s location, the Ministry is looking at how it can offer Portuguese as a subject from September.
“Simply because right across this land all of our children who are in the relevant age group will have, not too long from now, access to a secondary education,” she said.
Minister Manickchand disclosed that universal secondary education has been achieved in six of the 10 Administrative Regions, and that the 2013 budget allocation to the education sector will allow for achievement of universal secondary education in two additional Regions.
“By the end of 2013, we are going to have universal secondary education, that means every child in Regions 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10, will have access to secondary education,” Minister Manickchand said. Guyana has already achieved universal primary education.
After the first meeting of the CXC in 1973 it was not until six years after that the first exam was administered to 30,000 candidates from 13 participating territories. Forty years later just under 6.5 million Caribbean citizens from 19 territories, including three of the Dutch speaking Caribbean have participated in this particular certification.
“We offer a full suite of examinations and certification that can support the emergence of a seamless education system in the Region from primary to pre-university,” CXC Senior Assistant Registrar Giles said.
Apart from the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC), Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE), the associate degree, Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) and Caribbean Certificate for Secondary Level Competency (CCSLC), the CXC introduced last year the Caribbean Primary Exist Assessment (CPEA) which was piloted in 86 primary schools in two participating territories. It is expected that four more schools will be joining the programme in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
“We expect that regional governments will buy in to the concept of this examination in the coming years… this assessment is far more than a replacement for the common entrance examination, it is new and exciting way of teaching, learning and assessment at the primary level that will ensure our children enter secondary school with the competencies that they require to succeed,” Giles emphasised.
While reminiscing on the challenges faced by the CXC over the years, Giles indicated that the journey will continue with a change in emphasis in terms of a movement towards the implementation of electronic exams and marking. It is possible that the first electronic exam could happen in 2014. This movement is due to the fact that the cost of the residential marking is no longer sustainable.
Throughout the year, CXC will hold activities to celebrate this milestone including the opening of the new CXC Headquarters in Barbados, two visual arts exhibitions in Dominica and Jamaica, a 40th anniversary lecture, the publication of two special issues of the Caribbean Examiner magazine and ceremonies honouring 40 of CXC’s stalwarts.
