CNC3 News
The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has decided to exclude the controversial question 35 from the assessment of last week's SEA exam, Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh said yesterday.Gopeesingh said this in a statement to Parliament yesterday.He said concerns were raised after last week's SEA exam with respect to the suitability of one of the 46 questions on the SEA mathematics paper–Question 35.
He said the ministry had noted the concerns expressed about the use of the word "ratio" and the possibility of students' unfamiliarity with both the word and its application in mathematics."In this context, following discussions between CXC and the Ministry of Education, and in the interest of ensuring that no student is disadvantaged by this question and in accordance with standard assessment practice, a decision has been taken to exclude Question 35 from the assessment," Gopeesingh said.
"The removal of this question from the assessment will in no way affect the weight of the mathematics paper as students' scores on all papers are placed on a common scale by converting them to standard scores by CXC," the minister said.Gopeesingh said these standard scores have been and would be used for placement of students in secondary schools.Gopeesingh also said the creative writing component of the exam was successfully implemented by the ministry.