PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad – Criminal charges will be coming for any Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) employee who may have leaked Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) test papers to students in Trinidad and Tobago.

Registrar at the Barbados-based CXC,Dr Didacus Jules, gave the warning yesterday.

"If it is found that the leak is within CXC, consequences would follow from that for whoever was involved in that process and I am talking not just about administrative consequences but criminal consequences," Jules told a news conference after holding talks with education officials here.

Nearly 4 000 students were affected by the CXC decision to cancel all CAPE exams in Trinidad. The move was agreed to at an emergency meeting in Barbados on Sunday after media reports said that Communication Studies exam papers were being offered to students here for as much as TT$5 000 (US$833).

Jules said that the council was now "in control of the situation", although adding that there would be no rushed investigations. "It is going to be very thorough," he said.

On Sunday, CXC announced that all the existing papers were withdrawn and said new papers would be issued in order to maintain the integrity
of the examination.

Jules told reporters that because there was at least one leak "we were not going to take any chances with the other papers".

He declined to disclose the new date for the exams but assured students that the CXC would seek to ensure that results were made available in time for them to apply to various universities.

"Our first priority is the student and we will ensure that the marking is done as expeditiously as possible so that there will not be an undue lag in the release of results.

"We want to make sure that Trinidad and Tobago students are not disadvantaged by this process. We already have a date for the resit of the Communication [Studies] exams but I am not about to release that date," he said, adding that "because of the nature of the situation it is a security matter [and] there are things evidently the public ought to know [and] there are things we can't say".

But Jules said that the situation should not be regarded as a stain on the CXC, since there were similar reports of examination papers being leaked at various learning institutions throughout the world.

Minister of Education Esther Le Gendre, who had earlier announced her support for the decision to suspend all the examinations, maintained that the leak did not originate in Trinidad.

"I think the major issue here is finding the criminals who are perpetrating this injustice on our nation's children," she said.

But former Minister of Education Clive Pantin described the situation as "disgraceful".

"The leak of the examination papers has put a blemish on our character as mature citizens. This world is looking at us and we have been placed at a low level because they would think that our society is corrupt," he said.

President of the National Parent Teacher Association Zena Ramatali said she wanted to know where the leak occurred.

"It is unfair to students who studied honestly but this could have far-reaching circumstances and it is better we deal with it now," she said. (CMC)