Fifteen examinations offered by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) have been thrown into doubt following the long-awaited announcement of the date of the General Election.
Yesterday, through the Barbados Government Information Service, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart announced that elections would be held on May 24 and Nomination Day would be May 7.
This means that seven subjects for Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Education (CAPE) and eight Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate Examinations (CSEC) subjects will be directly impacted.
The island’s secondary schools, which are also examination centres, are utilised as polling stations during a General Election. The CXC exam dates are set for the Caribbean and not specific countries.
“CXC dates have been set for a while and the Ministry of Education are the ones who would have to make the arrangements for the students in Barbados to write the exam,” an official there told the Weekend Nation.
“CXC offers the exams, it is the Ministry in the local country that would take care of the administration arrangements for the exams.”
Dr Roderick Rudder, the CXC registrar for Barbados, said that was a policy matter and the Minister of Education would have to speak on it.
“The announcement was only made today and I would leave that for the Minister to speak to,” he said.
A call to Minister of Education Ronald Jones was not returned and Chief Education Officer Karen Best is said to be on leave. Deputy Joy Adamson also did not respond to a message left on her line.
On May 7, the CAPE subjects scheduled are English literature I, physics I and integrated mathematics II and two weeks later, economics unit I, digital media II, pure mathematics II and agricultural science II.
The CSEC subjects over the course of the two days are visual arts, music, electronic documents, chemistry, textiles, clothing and fashion, geography, agricultural science and industrial technology. (SAT)
