In a re­cent meet­ing of Par­lia­ment, the Ho­n­ourable Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion, Mr. An­tho­ny Gar­cia ad­dressed his Min­istry’s re­fusal to ac­cept CXC’s mod­i­fied ex­am­i­na­tion process for the May/June 2020 ex­am­i­na­tions.

As a sec­ondary school teacher prepar­ing four ex­am class­es, I was dis­ap­point­ed in what the Min­ster said.

Like many teach­ers, I am con­cerned about the main ex­am be­ing mul­ti­ple choice. How­ev­er, if struc­tured prop­er­ly, mul­ti­ple choice can be an ef­fec­tive form of as­sess­ment test­ing both low­er and high­er or­der skills. What con­cerned me the most was the im­pact of the Min­istry’s stance on stu­dents’ men­tal and emo­tion­al well-be­ing.

Weeks ago CXC an­nounced their de­ci­sion, thus al­low­ing our stu­dents to men­tal­ly ac­cept and start­ing prepar­ing them­selves for the mod­i­fied ap­proach. Yet weeks lat­er, on­ly af­ter be­ing asked di­rect­ly by the Op­po­si­tion, Mr. Gar­cia now choos­es to an­nounce to our stu­dents, the Min­istry’s stance i.e. re­vert to the old for­mat. Re­al­ly? Now you are say­ing this? Can you imag­ine the im­pact of his words on stu­dents? Pa­per 1? Pa­per 2? Who are they sup­posed to be­lieve? CXC? Mr. Gar­cia? Would he have con­tin­ued to re­main mute if he wasn’t asked di­rect­ly? No won­der stu­dents are stressed out and de­pressed. We can­not have our young minds in this con­stant state of un­cer­tain­ty.

Mr. Gar­cia you can­not be that in­sen­si­tive to­wards our stu­dents. Why must you be so in­flex­i­ble? Is it that dif­fi­cult for you to ac­cept that we have to ad­just how stu­dents are as­sessed? That we have to change? Now is not the time to adopt a com­bat­ive ap­proach with CXC. In the words of Sesame Street, ‘co­op­er­a­tion makes it hap­pen’.

Then again why should CXC even lis­ten to a man who didn’t even ad­dress his teach­ers on what was sup­posed to be the start of the new school term to of­fer guid­ance and clar­i­fi­ca­tion? A man who has left us floun­der­ing try­ing to find a way to reach our stu­dents with no in­di­ca­tion of when school will re­open. Mov­ing for­ward, I do hope the Min­is­ter is more re­spon­si­ble in his words and in­stead, of­fer us prop­er clar­i­fi­ca­tion on what lies ahead.

N. Ali