The Bar­ba­dos-based Caribbean Ex­am­i­na­tions Coun­cil (CXC) has dis­tanced it­self from the dis­rup­tions in ex­am­i­na­tion by Bar­ba­di­an stu­dents this week, say­ing that the mat­ter rests with the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion there.

Stu­dents faced sig­nif­i­cant de­lays in writ­ing their ex­ams due to fur­ni­ture short­ages at ex­am­i­na­tion cen­tres, and last-minute changes to the Span­ish oral ex­am sched­ule, prompt­ing an apol­o­gy from the min­istry.

In a state­ment, CXC re­spond­ing to the sit­u­a­tion, di­rect­ed at­ten­tion to the state­ment is­sued by the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, while not­ing the dis­tinct roles in ex­am ad­min­is­tra­tion.

“In any ex­am­i­na­tion sit­ting, dis­rup­tions may oc­cur,” CXC said.

It added: “CXC un­der­stands that any un­cer­tain­ty around ex­am­i­na­tions can cause anx­i­ety, and we wish to as­sure can­di­dates that we work with Min­istries of Ed­u­ca­tion to en­sure that no can­di­date is dis­ad­van­tage.”

“The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion in each ter­ri­to­ry man­ages the ad­min­is­tra­tion of ex­am­i­na­tions at lo­cal ex­am­i­na­tion cen­tres. As it re­lates to the mat­ter high­light­ed, I re­fer you to the state­ment shared by the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, Tech­no­log­i­cal and Vo­ca­tion­al Train­ing,” said the re­gion­al ex­am­i­na­tion body.

CXC was es­tab­lished in 1972 un­der agree­ment by the par­tic­i­pat­ing gov­ern­ments in the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (CARI­COM).

The or­gan­i­sa­tion al­so col­lab­o­rates with coun­tries in the Dutch Caribbean—Cu­raçao, Sa­ba, St Eu­sta­tius and Sint Maarten, as well as Suri­name.

In its state­ment, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion ex­pressed re­gret over the sit­u­a­tion, say­ing:

“While there were some mat­ters that were be­yond our con­trol, the ul­ti­mate re­spon­si­bil­i­ty is ours to en­sure that the ex­am­i­na­tion cen­tre is fit for pur­pose, which in­cludes the ad­e­quate and time­ly pro­vi­sion of suit­able ta­bles and chairs for use by can­di­dates when sit­ting their ex­am­i­na­tions.”

“We have in­ves­ti­gat­ed the mat­ter and re­ceived a re­port on the oc­cur­rences lead­ing up to, and on the day of the ex­am­i­na­tion,” the Min­istry said. “This re­port has in­formed the en­hanced steps we have since im­ple­ment­ed to en­sure that there is no re­peat of this or sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tion.”

The Min­istry said that it al­so want­ed to re­as­sure stu­dents, “that your suc­cess in these ex­ams is of para­mount im­por­tance to the min­istry.”

It added: “You de­serve an at­mos­phere that is con­ducive to this, and you have our as­sur­ance that you will have it.” —BRIDGETOWN, Bar­ba­dos (CMC)