Public Relations Manager of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), Cleveland Sam has announced that CXC has set up review committees to look particularly at student’s performance in Mathematics, English and Caribbean History.
Sam told a press conference held here recently, that Mathematics and English are two of the most critical subjects and the performances generally are under 50 percent, “which I think we all agree is unacceptable.”
“So CXC has set up two committees to review what is going on with these subjects and to come up with a recommendation and these recommendations will be presented at the council meeting in St. Vincent in December for the council’s consideration,” the CXC official said.
He said with respect to performance in Caribbean History, the committee has completed its work and is to present its report to the Council either in October or December.
“These reports will come with recommendations in terms of what can we do,” Sam indicated.
Meantime, he mentioned that CXC has partnered with other publishers, mostly outside of the United Kingdom (UK), to provide both past papers and study guides for students preparing for the examinations.
Sam also revealed that CXC has also made available the school reports which he thinks is a resource that enough teachers and students do not take advantage of.
“If you imagine students [who] were taking the exams in a particular year can look back at questions that were offered in a previous examination and they are told where the students went wrong, where those who performed well went right and so on, and you can use this information to prepare for your examination,” he explained. “It is a significant resource but I would like to encourage teachers and students to take more advantage of this as a resource.”
As a student who did the CSEC exams this year, I believe that the only way for students to excel at English and Mathematics is to actually want to do well. If they want to excel, practice and work hard then it will be very easy to pass these subjects. However, a good support system from family will always help improve a student’s work greatly.
I think that Caribbean History has way too much content to take in from 3rd to 5th form. It is very difficult to study all this content especially in conjunction with even just 4 or 5 other subjects. Therefore, many students decide to ‘wing’ it and this results in failure… not necessarily because you don’t know the content or choose not to study, but because of the mental strain that it places on them. It’s not easy to study 3 textbooks for a multiple choice paper while thinking of the 5 other subjects that you need to prepare for. The content should be cut down or the exam should be planned differently to prevent this psychological…
Psycologial barrier.*
A student who does well in English and Math at the Secondary school level following the CXC syllabi should do well in the CXC exams but I also must say many teachers give watered down exams throughout the term just to look good. I advice schools to ensure thier teachers to prepare table of specification for all test and exams. HODs should also demand tests and exams supervision before administering them to students. School should update their teachers through workshops on the characteristics of good test questions.
Children are not interested in reading generally, especially the boys. Its really up to the parents to ensure that children are engaged in sufficient reading so that they are comfortable with reading from an early age.
Good English results from good reading. Beyond prescribed and force-fed school texts, reading is sadly not on a young person’s agenda.
I have received job applications in abbreviated cell-text jargon and submissions from senior Civil Servants that grammatically would not pass muster at Common Entrance.
The lack of progress in reinstating our Central Library speaks volumes.
well done to the students
English and math are the main subjects if the passing is not up to standard this is a big problem.
I totally agree with Mr. Sam’s statement. students does excellent at their school level yet they fail mathematics and English Language at CXC examination. Is it because CXC examiners follow a different guidelines from secondary school? just wondering.