Caribbean Examinations Council meeting held in Barbados
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| Published on Monday, December 8, 2008 |
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BRIDGETOWN, Barbados: The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) held its 40th Meeting under the Chairmanship of Professor E Nigel Harris, Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies at the Hilton Hotel, Barbados. The Council last met in Barbados in 2000.
The Council recorded its appreciation to the government and people of Barbados for hosting the meeting at short notice after hurricanes devastated the Turks and Caicos Islands which was the initial host of the meeting.
The Opening Ceremony and Presentation of Regional Top Awards took place on the night of Thursday December 4th at the Hilton Ballroom. Speakers at the ceremony included Dr Didacus Jules, Registrar of CXC; Professor E Nigel Harris, Chairman of CXC and Honourable Ronald Jones, Minister Education and Human Resources.
Minister Jones revealed that work on the proposed new CXC Headquarters will commence in March of 2009 with a completion date of November 2010.
The Minister said the “new building will provide accommodation for all components of the CXC Headquarters in one location and this will result in more cost-efficient operation and improved security.”
Regional Top Awards
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| Professor Nigel Harris, Chairman of CXC presents award to Yana-Marisa Edwards of Queen's College, Guyana for the Most Outstanding Performance Overall in the Caribbean in CSEC. |
During the ceremony, students received awards for outstanding performances in examinations for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and in the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE).
For CSEC, Yana-Marisa Edwards from Queen’s College, Guyana, received the award for most outstanding performance overall with Grade I in 15 subjects and Grade II in one subject.
Two other students from Queen’s College, Guyana also received awards. The award for Science went to Aaron Haralsingh with 11 Grade Is and one Grade III, while Suraj Mattai copped the Business Studies award with 12 Grade Is.
Another Guyanese student, Rahul Lall of Anna Regina Secondary School won the award for Technical/Vocational Subjects. Rahul achieved Grade I in 14 subjects and Grade II in two subjects.
The award for Humanities went to Lori-Ann Vaz of Wolmer’s High School For Girls, Jamaica. Lori-Ann achieved 11 subjects at Grade I.
Two Jamaicans also won the Visual Arts awards. Tesha Chai of Campion College got the award for Visual Arts - Two Dimensional work and Calvin Morgan of Manchester High School received the award for Visual Arts – Three Dimensional work.
Denise Westfield of the Girls’ High School, St Vincent and the Grenadines won the award for the Best Short Story submitted in the English A examination.
For CAPE, Jordanna Deane of St Joseph’s Convent, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago received the Dennis Irvine award for most outstanding performance overall. Four other students form Trinidad and Tobago received awards for outstanding performance. Jennisa Nandoo of Naparima Girls’ School, received the award for Modern Languages; Shraddha Kamath of Holy Faith Convent, received for the award for Natural Sciences; Adrian Maraj of Presentation College, San Fernando received the awards for Mathematics; and Kyle Hutton of Hill View College, received the award for Business Studies.
Two students from Jamaica received awards. Vincent Taylor of Munro College and Jervian Johnson of Holy Childhood High School received the award for Computer Science and Technical Studies respectively.
The award for Humanities went to Barbadian Chloe Walker of Harrison College.
Courtesy Calls
The top students arrived in Barbados on December 2. They paid courtesy calls on Fruendel Stuart, Deputy Prime Minister and Ronald Jones, Minister of Education and Human Resource Development, and had an opportunity to meet Barbadian students and to visit places of interest in Barbados.
Chairman Re-elected
The Council re-elected Professor Nigel Harris as Chairman for a second term. Professor Harris was first elected in September 2006 when the then Chairman, Professor the Honourable Kenneth Hall, ON, OJ resigned to become Governor General of Jamaica.
New members were also elected to serve on the various committees of Council; the Administrative and Finance (AFC), the Sub-Committee of the School Examinations Committee (SUBSEC) and the Final Awards Committee (FAC). The committees will serve for three years.
Registrar’s report
Council received the 2008 Annual Report presented by Dr Didacus Jules, CXC Registrar. Dr Jules highlighted the major achievements under the goals of the Strategic Plan 2008 – 2010. Among the highlights were the increases in candidate and subject entries for the Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence, (CCSLC), CAPE and CSEC May/June examinations; improved performance in both CAPE and CSEC; the revision of six CSEC and three CAPE syllabuses and the selection of an Architectural firm to design the new CXC Headquarters in Barbados.
Dr Jules also presented his new vision for the Council entitled “CXC Repositioning -Taking CXC to the Next Level.” The Vision has as its main pillars, Organisational Development – Making CXC an IT Intelligent Organisation, Staff Development and Engagement and Product and Services.
A highlight of the new strategic thrust is the initiative by the Council to collect e-mail addresses of all secondary school teachers in the region with the intention of establishing virtual subject associations. It is envisioned that CXC will use computer networking to facilitate direct input from all teachers to its syllabus revision, examination setting and marking processes.
Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence
Council noted that the second examination for the Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence (CCSLC) took place in June.
The number of candidates taking the examination and the number of subject entries submitted increased significantly this year with 7 843 candidates and 19 092 entries respectively.
Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC)
Thirty-three subjects were examined for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) in the May/June examinations. There was a two-percent improvement in performance in the May/June sitting and a six-percent improvement in the January sitting.
Candidate entries and subject entries both increased this year. The number of candidates submitting entries this year was 142 995 compared with 138 722 in 2007 and the number of subject entries were 544 872 up from 535 742 last year.
The Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE)
Forty-five Units in 24 subjects were examined. The candidate entries increased from 21 489 last year to 21 782 this year and Unit entries increased from 81 852 last year to 86 360 this year.
There was a two-percent improvement in performance across the region.
Caribbean Vocational Qualification
The first Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) certificates were issued this year. One hundred and ninety-one students from Trinidad and Tobago received CVQ certificates. There were 78 units completed by students in eight CVQs.
Budget
The Council approved the budget for 2009 of 47 million Barbados dollars. The budget provides for key areas such as syllabus development and review, examination preparation and administration, technology renewal, human resource management, research and development and marketing and Public relations.
Other Matters
The Council receives tremendous support from the governments of the 16 Participating Territories and from an extensive network of teachers and resource persons from across the region. The Chairman thanked staff and the many people who contributed to the work of the Council and looks forward to their continued support in 2009. | | | | Reads : 2168 | | | |
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