Manickchand mulls sanctions for negligent CXC teachers

FOLLOWING the discovery that grades for School-Based Assessments (SBAs) were not submitted by some public schools, Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, highlighted that the ministry is considering sanctioning the teachers responsible.

After the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) results were released on September 22, the ministry was not aware that the grades were not submitted, hence, she approached the examination body only to later find out that the grades awarded by CXC were based on the performance it saw.

Following a press conference on Saturday, the Minister was questioned whether the Ministry was exploring sanctions for those teachers who were negligent with their submissions. She said, “We are looking at it.”

The discovery that some teachers did not send the SBA grades was a disappointing one with the potential to “change people’s lives”. It is for this reason, she posited, “We are taking a very, very firm look at it with a view to making sure that it doesn’t happen again.”

Previously, it was reported that Minister Manickchand was unclear what was really done regarding the grades since they weren’t submitted. Regardless, she noted on Saturday that she has constantly engaged CXC to have a look at the SBAs and factor in the grades to ensure that students are not disadvantaged since they have done no wrong.

“People are still hopeful that some of these things will be resolved but we haven’t been conclusively told by CXC as yet that they will absolutely not be resolved,” Minister Manickchand told reporters. The CXC’s report on the review of the examinations will be issued in about a week’s time.

It was also reported that there were instances where partial information for the SBAs was submitted, resulting in students receiving ungraded results. The Education Minister noted that, in some cases, there was a missing cover page or the absence of a score for the practical component of the SBA.

“Once they determine that these things were done before the submission deadline, they were willing to look at it for us and that’s why they looked at it and sent back grades for those subjects,” she said.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF RESULTS

Given the fact that the discrepancies are being reviewed, the Education Ministry has not yet announced which students have gotten the most Grade One passes as yet. These students are usually considered to be the nation’s top performers, though a period permitting reviews is given. Usually, as well, after the Ministry’s announcement of the results and that review period, the CXC would recognise the regional top performers.

“We thought it prudent this year for us to wait until CXC makes the announcement about who got what in which country, about who topped and those kinds of things,” Minister Manickchand highlighted.