The Caribbean Ex­am­i­na­tions Coun­cil (CXC) has an­nounced a re­duc­tion by as much as 50 per cent in the SBA re­quire­ments for up­com­ing ex­am­i­na­tions.

In a state­ment from its Bar­ba­dos head­quar­ters, CXC said it was cog­nisant of the many chal­lenges across the re­gion due to COVID-19 and the ex­plo­sive vol­canic ac­tiv­i­ty on La Soufrière in St Vin­cent and the Grenadines. It al­so recog­nis­es that some can­di­dates across the re­gion, based on their par­tic­u­lar cir­cum­stances, may not be ready for as­sess­ment dur­ing the June/Ju­ly 2021 ex­am­i­na­tions cy­cle.

As a re­sult, the ex­am­i­na­tions body was re­leased new in­for­ma­tion in its SBA Stu­dent Hand­book: Treat­ment of Syl­labus­es and School-Based As­sess­ment for the Ad­min­is­tra­tion of Ex­am­i­na­tions which has been pub­lished and post­ed on its web­site and shared via so­cial me­dia.

"In ad­di­tion, CXC will share the Broad top­ics to be as­sessed on Pa­per 02 for CSEC and CAPE sub­jects with the Min­istries of Ed­u­ca­tion for dis­tri­b­u­tion to all can­di­dates on May 10, 2021—five weeks be­fore the start of the ex­am­i­na­tions—for sub­jects where such de­tails are not al­ready avail­able in the syl­labus. Can­di­dates are how­ev­er re­mind­ed that the en­tire syl­labus is as­sessed on Pa­per 01," CXC said in the state­ment.

In ad­di­tion, a fa­cil­i­ty has been im­ple­ment­ed for can­di­dates to de­fer sit­ting ex­am­i­na­tions and sub­mit­ting SBAs, un­til the Jan­u­ary 2022 CSEC or May/June 2022 CAPE, CSEC and CC­SLC ex­am­i­na­tions.

Ac­cord­ing­ly:

° SBA scores can be trans­ferred for use in the next ex­am­i­na­tion sit­ting, where the sub­ject is of­fered.

° The rules per­tain­ing to the reuse of SBA scores for re­sit can­di­dates re­main un­changed.

° Can­di­dates may al­so:

- sub­mit a new SBA

- de­lay sub­mis­sion of SBAs un­til the cho­sen sit­ting

° For the first time, CXC will ac­cept SBAs in Jan­u­ary 2022 for can­di­dates de­fer­ring to sit ex­am­i­na­tions for sub­jects of­fered in that pe­ri­od.

The grant­i­ng of the de­fer­ral will be man­aged by the prin­ci­pal, for in-school can­di­dates, and by the CXC Lo­cal Reg­is­trar, for pri­vate can­di­dates. Can­di­dates should in­di­cate an in­tent to de­fer from the June/Ju­ly 2021 ex­am­i­na­tion cy­cle by May 1, 20201. There will be no fee charged for the de­fer­ral of ex­am­i­na­tions.

The de­fer­ral pro­ce­dures were shared di­rect­ly with all Min­istries of Ed­u­ca­tion and Lo­cal Reg­is­trars from across the re­gion and on the CXC® web­site: www.cxc.org

In prepa­ra­tion for ex­ams, stu­dents can al­so ac­cess a range of ex­am­i­na­tion re­lat­ed re­sources via www.cxc.org/stu­dent-cen­tral/.