CARIBBEAN: Exam Results Leave Students Feeling Cheated

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

KINGSTON, Oct 2 1995 (IPS) - Hundreds of students from secondary schools in the region are unable to go on to tertiary education this year as the regional school leaving examination has turned into something of a fiasco.

From cheating in the northern island of Jamaica, to malfunctioning computers at marking centres in the region, the 16th sitting of the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) test papers has been disastrous.

In Jamaica, education authorities discovered that students had been selling this year’s examination papers. Several subjects including Mathematics, Prinicples of Business and Biology, had been compromised, education officials said in June.

Students from across the region sit the examinations between May and July each year and the results are published in August in time for admission to tertiary institutions.

Papers in the island were being sold for between 30 and 150 U.S. dollars. Several students and adults have been arrested in connection with the incidents and are now facing the courts.

After investigations to determine the scope of the cheating the CXC board, headquartered in Barbados, decided that Jamaican students would resit the Mathematics and Principles of Business test papers.

The results for all subjects have been late in Jamaica, with local CXC representatives blaming the resit for the tardy publication. The outcome is that several students are unable to begin classes at tertiary institutions or gain employment as the CXC is a basic requirement for entry into universities and colleges and for work.

The eventual release of the results last week has added to the chaos.

The grades for certain schools ordered to resit the exams have been withheld. The CXC board says this is so markers can compare students’ grades during the normal school year — requested from the schools — to the examination results. The CXC says this is a further measure to identify cheaters.

At other schools students have been graded for resits they did not sit and A-students have received very low grades

In Trinidad and Tobago children who sat examinations have been graded absent, A-students have received low grades and still others have been graded for examinations they did not sit.

One source at the CXC has blamed some of the chaos on malfunctioning computers. According to the source the main computer was not picking up the number one so if a student had written the answer 14 for a question, the computer would register it as four.

The problem was discovered late in the day and so markers — secondary school teachers from around the region — have had to go back over the examinations manually.

Meanwhile the Trinidad and Tobago Unified teachers Association (TTUTA) has called for a probe into the grading system noting that there have been widespread complaints from school principals.

Some principals note that the grades for English Language have been unusually low and that several students have been graded absent for examinations which they sat.

The Ministry of Education in Trinidad has issued a release noting that it too shared the concerns of the schools and that it had contacted the CXC headquarters. All grade U (ungraded, the lowest possible score) were being reviewed, the ministry said.