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Submitted by Douglas
CXC
CXC

The recent impasse by the Barbados Secondary Teachers Union (BSTU) and the regional body of the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) has begged the question…In whose interest are these Union bodies acting?

How can a union and its members take  as prisoners the future leaders of this society by abandoning the process and not marking School  Based  Assessment papers?

The children of this country’s future will be jeopardized…If the issue is one of volume of work that is to be undertaken and the Union is asking for more money. … Will increase money solve the volume of work or will it make the teachers  happier this summer ?

The case put on behalf of the Union should not have to see the children of Barbados suffering … I am calling on all parents no matter if your child is at this juncture to condemn the insensitive action of the Union and its leaders…

Children don’t sign cheques and yet they are asked to pay…

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93 responses to “Red Alert to All parents”

  1. Red Alert to All parents

    […] By David […]

  2. Hamilton Hill Avatar
    Hamilton Hill

    Perhaps Douglas can tell us what is the difference between the stance of the union and this admiinistration. Either way it is going to cost the parents. The teachers are demanding their pound of flesh, and rightly so I might add. Don’t your terribly incompetent Ministers demand theirs?

  3. Hamilton Hill Avatar
    Hamilton Hill

    Leaders lead and minions follow. The unwritten but oft spoken motto of these bastard we now have in office. ..Douglas included is WE MUST GET OURS. Like Donville Iniss teachers too have bills to pay. In any event they work very hard. …A foreign attribute to the cadre of clowns that make up our bloated cabinet.

  4. David Avatar
    David

    Redman and the BSTU have been very clear about the fact numerous requests promises by the ministry of education to resolve the matter goes back to 2006. It cant be right for the involvement of teachers to be taken for granted; it calls for collaboration.

    On 28 March 2015 at 12:16, Barbados Underground wrote:

    >

  5. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Douglas:

    Here is a novel idea your administration is quite good at implementing.
    Why not make the parents pay for the cost of assessing the student’ work as part of it’s new strict benefit principle approach to education and health?
    I am sure the same way UWI students are expected to make a contribution to their education (similar to the users of the health services) why not force the parents to invest in the secondary students’ education?

    Douggie dog, your incompetent visionless master of an administration has opened a Pandora’s box of no return.
    Here you have a government owed hundred of millions in VAT and income tax and refuses to move against the defaulters (according to the Auditor General) including Leroy Parris and his millions of unpaid taxes but see the poor and unemployed as easy targets to go after by cutting the reverse tax credit by 50%, financially preventing their “bright and ambitious children from attending university and demanding the sick and poor to pay for health care.
    What a people-centred administration indeed!

  6. bajcan Avatar
    bajcan

    All of the fall out that is taking place in Barbados began before this government took office. Unfortunately, their first mistake was to keep silence on the mess that was left by the former government; which left mayhem and destruction behind. I personally do not believe that the future of our children should be held hostage by unions, teachers or governments. It is time to sit down and resolve this issue. Also, it is not to late for the government to publish the mess that was left by the mess that they inherited, and no money to resolve the issues. I still want to know, where is and how was the money that the BLP received for selling the National Bank of Barbados, to the Trinidad Republic Bank spent? Both the BLP and the DLP has to be help accountable.

  7. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    The children are learning a life lesson.

    Bajan adult “leaders” are brassbowls and they will have to take responsibility for their own success in life.

    Year after year nothing but strife in Barbados. Government,Unions,Headmasters and on and on.

  8. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ bajcan March 28, 2015 at 8:35 AM
    “Also, it is not to late for the government to publish the mess that was left by the mess that they inherited, and no money to resolve the issues.”

    That shit of an excuse no longer washes with enlightened Bajans.
    We thought all along it was the international recession for the present economic state and now you are talking déjà vu ad nauseam about the mess left by the BLP some 7 going 8 years ago.

    The P M is good at talking about lists. So why doesn’t he ‘publishit’ by preparing a list of all the mess left by the former administration?
    We know for sure that $11 billion national debt will be on that list.
    So too the Leroy Parris affair and the $3.3 million fraudulent invoice.

    What about the hundred of millions in uncollected VAT and income tax dollars? Is this part of the mess too?
    Did the BLP leave a plan to introduce user fees for health services and to make the UWI students pay for their tuition costs?

    What about the pending privatization of the BNTCL and other State-owned commercial entities? Is this part of the mess left on the list?

    How come the person who left that messy list for the DLP to clean up is now their blue-eyed boy and economic guru and every word he speaks on the floor of Parliament is gospel to the DLP hypocrites’ ears?

    Even the republic status lark is an OSA relic that is certainly on Stuart’s list.

    Those who seek to prepare and publish lists of evil doers should make sure they are looking in the mirror of Truth.

    “Do not repeat anything you will not sign your name to.”

  9. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    Douglas

    You really have no shame.

    How can the Government take as prisoners the future leaders of this society by abandoning free tertiary education? Further, how can it send those same children to bed hungry by terminating the services of their parents without putting anything in place to help them, not even their severance pay?

  10. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    @ bajcan March 28, 2015 at 8:35 AM
    “Also, it is not to late for the government to publish the mess that was left by the mess that they inherited, and no money to resolve the issues.”

    |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

    I cannot believe that 8 years now this DLP administration is into its reign….. YET no worthy assets to show…nothing of importance done but increasing the debt by $5 Billion….. and they are still looking back with coos of BLAME>>> BLAME>>>> BLAME>>>>…….Leme ask you guys one question, so for what reasons where you all elected?

  11. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    Now we are beginning to understand why such despots as Hitler, Mussolini ,Amin and Saddam could have ruled for so long. Because their supporters blindly went along with everything,no matter how evil, they did.

  12. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Bizzy wins again with burger power. lol

    “It was a whopper of a win for Burger King Lester Vaughan School as the boys from the Cane Garden institution captured their first ever Powerade Barbados Secondary Schools’ Athletics Championships title yesterday.”

  13. just asking Avatar
    just asking

    I am not saying teachers should work for nothing, but anybody who know the leader of this group of teachers is very militant, who don’t do a stroke of work at her appointed school, but look for ways to frustrate people in all spheres of life, even her own family members don’t want to have anything to do with her, too militant!!! everything must be her way or no way forward. Isn’t it time for her to retire?

  14. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    Militant may be but she stands out as a decisive Union leader, given the mealy mouthed,two timing Maloneys,Clarkes and Trotmans of the past,thank goodness.Neither successor GS of the NUPW,BUT nor BWU have stepped up to the plate in as convincing a manner as the BSTU’s Mary Redman.To be sure she would not be in line for an ambassadorship or such like dispensed patronage of the bag blind political pimps we are saddled with in Barbados.Gaul bline the Primate Ministuh.Stinkin brassbowl.

  15. David Avatar
    David

    Aren’t Redman’s publicly stated positions representative of the BSTU executive?

  16. Teacher's Pet. Avatar
    Teacher’s Pet.

    MARY REDMAN,just gets me sick a cantankerous woman who need to teach the children at the school to which she has been assigned.

  17. David Avatar
    David

    Ms. Redman has explained many times she has been given a time table that accommodates her union responsibility. She has also advised the performance of her students have never been an issue.

    To repeat, doesn’t Ms. Redman represent the views of her executive?

  18. Clone Avatar
    Clone

    Put aside the politics and see that all of the Barbadian students taking SBA subjects maybe ungraded by the time the results are released.
    This is not a Barbadian problem, this is a Caribbean problem. All of the other territories have already submitted their SBA marks done by teachers. The Foundation school had a problem with marks not being submitted to CXC in time. ALL THE CHILDREN FAILED. Mary Redman got involved with BSTU fighting CXC. The children were still given a failing grade.
    Teachers across the region would have to be involved, if this payment is to be put in placed

  19. ac Avatar
    ac

    boy boy how the BLP have twisted tongues , i clearly remember in the Broomes Fiasco many of the BLP renegades asking for the Head of Mary Redman ,

  20. Stupse Avatar
    Stupse

    Barbados really has some not-too intelligent people. CXC is a third-party organisation and continues to impose work on the teachers of Barbados. What is so hard about that to understand.

    Let me give you a brief history about school meals service. School meals was a service that was voluntarily managed and even served by Principals and teachers schools in Barbados. The Ministry wanted to make it mandatory that it be the responsibility of Principals.
    Immediately, the Principals withdrew their voluntary service and fought against the imposition.

    Now we have the minions (teachers) who have to take on the burden of CXC without pay and Barbadians support this crap because they always see teachers as the worst people.

    Let me add that teachers are being asked by Deputy Principals and Principals to enter students data such as dates-of-birth, names, exams etc for which they ARE NOT paid. However if they make a mistake, the school is expected to pay $50 per mistake if it is before the data-entry deadline. If the mistake is to be rectified after, it increases to $200 per mistake.

    How on earth can this be fair?

  21. Stupse Avatar
    Stupse

    David this is an issue that I am very passionate about.

    The reason why there is so many lessons being given is because its almost impossible for a teacher to complete a CXC syllabus and do all the SBAs in the given time-frame for lets say 30 students.

    The majority of Term 2 (for 4th and 5th form) is taken up with sports. Term 3 in the 5th form cannot be counted because that is when CXC exams are conducted. The syllabi suggests 5 contact periods per week. Most CXC subjects taught in secondary schools have only 4 contact periods.

    Therefore, teachers are forced to “spot”/follow the pattern of the past examination papers and teach what they think will come on the CXC exam,hence not covering the entire syllabus.

    Its all about passing CXC and results. Its the new fast food recipe to passing exams and unless we make serious changes, Barbados will continue to see less outputs form the vast input injected in education.

  22. Stupse Avatar
    Stupse

    What will the result be?

    The older secondary schools have a reputation to protect – They want exhibitions and high pass rates, Newer secondary schools want to talk about results at their speech day so in the end all of them will end up correcting SBAs, teachers want to brag of their results. Teachers will never stick together because many do not see themselves as professionals. If only CXC were to run some type of plagiarism software on these SBAs, we would be in for a shocker.

    The doctors in Barbados have refused to work under certain conditions which was a matter of life and death however teachers continue to act sheepish when it comes to their rights.

    I am so fed up with this system.

  23. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ Stupes
    Can someone PLEASE explain how it could be more cost effective to create CXC just to avoid having exams corrected by an international examinations body like Cambridge?
    The cost of running CXC alone must be horrendous. Then there is the need for international accreditation; the ongoing challenges with students cheating and loose security with exam papers; now they are seeking to exploit free labour from teachers for correcting SBAs.

    What does CXC contribute to teachers? don’t they SELL their services?
    shite man!! ..if you sell what you got ..you need to buy what you want….

    What BSTU needs to address is their chosen methodology. How the hell do you have a fight with CXC – and take it out on 16-year-old school children and their future?
    …Like the damn stupid cricketers who had a problem with their union and took it out on the Board…(and the problems they have with the Board, they take out on the fans by playing shiite)

    Solution…Correct the damn papers and give everyone 100%…..
    THAT will teach CXC about looking to get free labour…… LOL

  24. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    @ Stupse March 28, 2015 at 6:26 PM #
    IT WOULD BE MOST INTERESTING IF YOU WILL KINDLY EXPAND ON THE INFO YOU HAVE PROVIDED BRIEFLY. IT SEEMS THAT YOU ARE SAYING THAT THE TEACHERS WORKLOAD IS BEING ADDED TO COVERTLY BECAUSE THERE IS NOT SUFFICIENT TIME TO FINISH THE SYLABUS

    I KNOW WHAT IT IS TO BE GIVEN INSUFFICIENT HOURS TO GO THRU THE SYLABUS PROPERLY

    I ALSO KNOW WHAT IT IS TO BE GIVEN EXTRA SUBJECTS TO TEACH ABOVE THAT WHAT WAS ORIGINALLY ASSIGNED

  25. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    RE Can someone PLEASE explain how it could be more cost effective to create CXC just to avoid having exams corrected by an international examinations body like Cambridge?
    The cost of running CXC alone must be horrendous. Then there is the need for international accreditation; the ongoing challenges with students cheating and loose security with exam papers; now they are seeking to exploit free labour from teachers for correcting SBAs.

    THERE IS NO WAY THAT THE NONSENSE STATED ABOVE COULD BE UNDERSTOOD OR CONDONED
    WHAT WAS WRONG WITH THE CAMBRIDGE EXAMS?
    WE SEEM TO BE CHANGING SYSTEMS AND SUBSTITUTING THEM WITH PROBLEMATIC ONES

    HOW IS IT THAT CONTEMPORARY STUDENTS GET SO MANY A’S IN SO MANY SUBJECTS AT CAPE (A ) LEVEL?

    RE Solution…Correct the damn papers and give everyone 100%…..
    THAT will teach CXC about looking to get free labour…… LOL

    LOL INDEED THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO WITH DEMANDING STUDENTS AND SUPERIORS WHO HAVE NO RESPECT FOR THE PLIGHT OF THE TEACHERS

  26. Togetherness Avatar
    Togetherness

    Teacher’s Pet. March 28, 2015 at 3:08 PM #

    MARY REDMAN,just gets me sick a cantankerous woman who need to teach the children at the school to which she has been assigned

    Spot on teacher’s pet miller and the yardfowl posse line up behind any one who they see as a thorn in the side of GOB. Redman brings misery untold to the teaching profession and by extension the children and school system. Most of the rubbish she passes as legitimate union grouses are items that a discussion among mature adults can easily resolve. But no that would be too quick not only that the petty issues consume so much time one is forced to ask when does she get time to teach. No one is threating unions and their right to defend their workers .Look at Casweel who talks all over his face without hindrance from government but has never won a battle for his members. Talk is cheap Redman has honed talk into a never-ending art form. The losers are the children and the taxpayers. Miller and the BLP pimps justify that unprofessional behavior by blaming the government . If sargassum weed sneaks ashore at Cove Bay tonight miller and his lackeys on BU next day pillorying government for the weed landing.

  27. Dacosta Brathwaite Avatar
    Dacosta Brathwaite

    My daughter has recently gotten the news that she passed the January,2015 CXC Exam in English Language and Mathematics , General Proficiency with Grade 2 in both subjects. She is not a scholar by any stretch of the imagination but tries hard to achieve her goals. She is slated to take six other subjects in the upcoming CXC Examinations but if the teachers carry out their threat of not correcting her SBA’s, all of her hopes will be dashed.

    I have nobody’s axe to grind. My advice to the two teachers’ unions is to allow my child and every child attending the Government Secondary Schools to have a future . If the students’ SBA’s aren’t graded/marked, then not one of them will pass a single subject this year . However, the students who attend St. Winifred’s , The Ursuline Convent and any other Private Secondary School will have their SBA’s marked and given an opportunity to pass the relevant exams.

    Why use my child’s future to bargain a stipend? It would make more sense to me, for the teachers’ unions to put the suggestion into any package when negotiating conditions of employment with their employer I am sure they negotiate and are successful in getting conditions like leave with pay to attend University courses at Cave Hill when they should be in the classroom teaching our children . No union gets whatever it demands from its members’ employers. However it gives and it takes, when talking around the bargaining table. A perfect example would be for the unions to suggest that, if they can’t get the stipend, then the workers’ employer can give them a week’s leave with pay after marking the exam, if they feel that they are stressed.

    According to a statement issued by one of the two unions, the demand for payment for correcting the SBA’s will be put on the agenda when the Caribbean Union of Teachers meet later this year. Isn’t this putting the cart before the horse? All the children of all the other countries in the Caribbean will have their SBA’s marked for the upcoming examinations.

    It isn’t only my child who would be disadvantaged but the children of all the taxpayers of Barbados who pay the teachers. I hope that common sense will prevail and the students will be allowed to take the exams without any unnecessary added stress.

  28. Observing Avatar
    Observing

    @Stupse
    “I am so fed up with this system.”

    Will paying teachers for SBAs help improve the system?

    @David
    “doesn’t Ms. Redman represent the views of her executive?”

    Is it the executive that sets policy or is it the membership?

    What about the “other” Union? Have they “surveyed” their members or executive yet?

    Is this an empty threat that virtually all teachers will ignore (at this time) or will intransigence and collateral damage win the day?

    Will we polarize and politicize everything?

    Are teachers really going to risk hundreds of students getting an ungraded result in this final hour no matter how just the cause may seem?

    At the end of it all there are only two questions that need to be asked:

    Is it the duty of a teacher to conduct and correct (not compile/collate/carry in) School Based Assessments?

    Does BSTU have the “right/authority” to negotiate directly with / act against CXC on this issue?

    My apologies to Just Asking for all the questions but I’ve been Just Observing for a while. Long live BU.

    btw, has ANY trade union achieved or done ANYTHING of long standing substance or real significance recently?

    Just Observing…still.

  29. Ready to Vote Avatar
    Ready to Vote

    The teachers should really be seeking to have the SBAs ABOLISHED ALTOGETHER. Educated parents do their children’s SBAs. Wealthy parents pay to have their children SBAs done. Teachers help as many well-behaved and cooperative students as they possibly can. The poor and ignorant and obnoxious students fail their SBAs and by extension fail their CXCs. They end up on the block. The SBA component of the CXC examination is a major contribution to our block culture. CXC is like the DLP government – Spending without prioritising. Paying big fat salaries and contracts to the people at the top at the expense of the people at the bottom. Go Redman!!

  30. David Avatar
    David

    @ observing

    Stand corrected, the bigger point is that Redman can’t be speaking for herself. Your points raised are valid and the rebut is why does the leadership of the ministry of education and the BSTU not have the capacity to size the ramifications of not resolving the matter in a timely manner.

  31. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ David
    “…..why does the leadership of the ministry of education and the BSTU not have the capacity to size the ramifications of not resolving the matter in a timely manner.”
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++
    You know David, you NEVER cease to amaze Bushie….

    Do you realize that the “leadership of the ministry of education and BSTU” are the same identical bunch of jackasses who were there for Alexandra?

    Do you recall that these same imbeciles have been in “leadership” year after damn year as THOUSANDS of our children are let down by the shiite eddy-kashun system that they run …. and NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE to address this?

    Do you appreciate that Ronald Jones is the man in charge of this eddy-kashun shiite….?

    Shiite man David….
    …you REALLY think you should ask the above question?

    Alright then…
    …..BECAUSE THERE ARE INDISPUTABLY A COLLECTIVE SET OF IGRUNT, USELESS, UNPRODUCTIVE BRASS BOWL LACKIES……OK?

    @ Ready to Vote
    Don’t waste your time voting unless Caswell BUPs.
    It was the alternative set of jackasses that started the whole CXC shiite in the first place….so who yuh going vote for…?

    You are 100% correct.
    It is a system that gives GREAT advantages to the “HAVES” and impossible challenges to the “HAVE-NOTS”.

    EVERYONE knows that the SBAs are done for 80% of students. Even those that do their own tend to be the ones with access to internet, printing and binding facilities, and parental and other support….yet it represents a SIGNIFICANT percentage of the final mark.

    IT IS BARE SHIITE.
    …but no one says a shiite because those who can speak out prefers to use the system to their own advantage.
    No wonder we produced BETTER graduates when Oxford and Cambridge provided UNBIASED exams.

    Owen supported this CXC shiite as part of his failed (and catastrophic for Barbados) CSME nonsense….and the clueless DLP were too busy stealing CLICO money, and too dense anyway, to do anything about CXC – except of course to grant them a spanking new MULTI-MILLION headquarters at the expense of OUR NIS.

    Talk about French Connected (UK) brass bowl idiots …. yuh talking bout Bajans….

  32. ac Avatar
    ac

    actually i do not see this as a B or D issue but an issue that dictates the necessity for fairness given that a person /persons collectively has a right to seek recourse for compensation for work done whether they be a joiner a welder or a teacher, it is not good enough to expect services rendered and an unwillingness by those receiving not to be equally responsible out of fairness to compensate on a scale that is measurable and justifiable with in the parameters of duty bound
    the bstu has laid out a reasonable case on which they have stated that a job when delivered must be compensated and any rationale thinking person would be hard pressed not to agree ,, as stated in their complain for over the years they have had excessive workload and their cries for compensation has been received with muted ears.
    The harm being done from the fallout of this stalemate should not solely be placed at those seeking compensation but at those who have closed their eyes and ears to fairness and responsibility,

  33. ac Avatar
    ac

    Using the children by any party is an exercise in futility and an overreache which by extension obfuscate the long overdrawn issue at hand, a readiness and a preparedness which is devoided of a recognition to a principle that is asking for a proper and right measure to resolve this stalemate ,,a stalemate which has now extended to a bargaining chip and the sole purpose of having an educational system and to those being involved,

  34. David Avatar
    David

    @Bush Tea

    You are correct of course, the same JAs who created the problem are now expected to solve. One would easily think with Jones and Karen Best in the MOE a process of conciliatory engagement would be the order of the day.

  35. David Avatar
    David

    Minister Ronald Jones has ‘presided’ over the AX and now the BSTU SBA matters where there is obvious negligence at play. Where is the accountability?

    On Sunday, 29 March 2015, Barbados Underground wrote:

    >

  36. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    David

    I hope you don’t mean that Ronald Jones is negligent. I don’t think that he is; I truly believe that he is very attentive to the task at hand. The problem is with all his good intentions, he is completely incapable of getting the task done. The man is functioning just above imbecile: what do you expect? That he would suddenly sprout a fully functioning brain when he was appointed to the Cabinet. There is an urgent need to remove him from the Ministry of Education but that presents another dire problem. Who would be the replacement, Steve Blackett?

    Sent from my iPad

    >

  37. Stupse Avatar
    Stupse

    @Georgie Porgie
    Would you affix your signature to something that you blatantly did not correct with and you know is inaccurate.

    Would you sign a statement the Police give you if the contents werent accurate? Or would you sign it and indicate 100% satisfaction.

    The words of the fool is sickens me.

  38. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    @Stupse March 29, 2015 at 12:13 PM
    Quid scripsi, scripsi!
    No I have never signed a statement for the Police if the contents werent accurate OK? not once in 15 years.

    Have you ever had to deal with students who all thought that they were “A” students, and who quit if they dont get high marks for every assignment?

    Have you ever worked for superiors who only care for the bottom line and not you?

    Have you ever worked anywhere where your pay is dependent on student retention?

    “The words of the fool is sickens me.” LOL LOL what are you saying here Sir? LOL
    Stupse indeed!

  39. Dacosta Brathwaite Avatar
    Dacosta Brathwaite

    There seems to be a misunderstanding among the head of the PTA, the BSTU/BUT, teachers, parents and guardians about the ramifications of teachers refusing to mark/grade students’ CSEC and CAPE SBA’s. I did some research on the Internet and would like to offer advice to the following:-

    (A) For the Head of the PTA
    Communication between CXC and Candidates

    CXC shall not communicate directly with candidates, their parents/guardians or any person acting on their behalf regarding matters such as registration, timetables,
    SBA examination results or the issue of certificates.
    Queries on these matters should be brought to
    the attention of the Principal in the case of school candidates or to the attention of the Head of the Examination Centre in the case of
    out-of-school candidates.

    Please see URL:-
    https://www.cxc.org/SiteAssets/GUIDELINES/GUIDELINESTOCANDIDATESRevised2013.pdf

    (B) For Parents and Guardians

    The following was copied from the CXC BLOG.
    https://www.cxc.org/?q=examinations/faqs/faqs-general

    Q: Is it mandatory to complete the School Based Assessment (SBA) / Internal Assessment (IA) assignments?
    Answer: Yes it is. School Based Assessment/Internal Assessment is a mandatory component in most of the CSEC and all of the CAPE syllabuses. If you are registered to submit SBA/IA and do not submit this component for the examination, you will be reported “Ungraded – SBA/IA component not received”. An Alternative Paper to SBA/IA (normally referred to as Paper 3/2 in the case of CSEC and 3/B in the case of CAPE) is available to candidates registered at private centres. Candidates who are eligible and who opt to write the Alternative Paper are not required to complete the SBA/IA requirements.
    Q. I am the Principal of a school and wish to enquire about one of my students’ registration details. Should I contact the Council directly?
    A. No, the Council does not engage in direct contact with principals, candidates, parents, guardians, or teachers. All enquiries must be directed to the Council via the Office of the Local Registrar.
    Q: Is there an alternative examination for candidates who fall ill and unable to sit the examination?
    A: No – a subject is offered only once at any sitting.

    Q: What is the meaning of “Ungraded” on the preliminary results slip?
    A: Ungraded indicates that the scores for one component of the examination, usually the SBA/IA, was not submitted on behalf of the candidate. Queries about “Ungraded” results should be submitted to the CXC Local Registrar in the Ministry of Education, by the specified deadline
    For Mary Redman, Pedro Shepherd and teachers

    Role of the Teacher in SBA

    Copied from url:-

    https://www.cxc.org/SiteAssets/MANUALS/SBA_Handbook_for_Teachers4Feb13.pdf

    And it reads in part quote

    ‘’To successfully administer the SBA and to maximise the potential of the SBA to the learning process, it is important that teachers:
    a.

    manage the SBA as part and parcel of the internal work of the
    school;

    b.
    understand what SBA tasks are to be done and how they are to be done;

    c.
    be aware of the criteria being used in assessment; and

    d.assess assignments competently.’’

    Ends quote

    Surely teachers who prepare children for SBA’s must have read the above when they accepted the responsibilities assigned to them. There is no mention of extra payment for performing duties.

  40. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    @
    THANKS FOR TELLING US ABOUT THE Role of the Teacher in SBA AS Copied from url:-

    https://www.cxc.org/SiteAssets/MANUALS/SBA_Handbook_for_Teachers4Feb13.pdf
    Role of the Teacher in SBA

    ARE YOU THEN SAYING THAT ACCORDING TO YOUR ARGUMENT THAT THE CXC IS THE EMPLOYER OF THE TEACHERS?
    PLEASE KINDLY CLARIFY
    I JUST ASKING

  41. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Georgie Porgie March 29, 2015 at 9:25 PM

    GP, you are not going to get an answer to that one.

  42. Ping Pong Avatar
    Ping Pong

    Mr Brathwaite

    Teachers are NOT withholding the SBAs. They are contemplating NOT MARKING the SBAs. All SBAs not marked are to be delivered via Principals to the local Registrar (which is the Ministry of Education) for transfer to CXC. It will be CXC’s call as to what is to be done with the SBAs. The students cannot force anyone to mark their SBAs they can only complete them as instructed. Will CXC with the Ministry of Education’s “blessing” be then heartless (again) and “fail” students who have no control over events?

  43. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Dacosta Brathwaite March 29, 2015 at 8:54 PM #
    i dont know much……….but has CXC considered

    1 the numbers of students involved per subject in each school?
    2 the complexity of each SBA
    3 the diversity of each SBA with respect to structure sequence and substance
    4 the time it takes to supervise and grad each SBA
    5 the fact that there is no standardization in many aspects of this SBA thing?

    SIR HAVE YOU TAKEN THE TEXT OUT OF CONTEXT IN YOUR QUEST TO MAK IT A PRETEXT.

    ENLIGHTEN ME SIR FROM THE CXC MANUAL

  44. Ping Pong Avatar
    Ping Pong

    Also is Mr Brathwaite aware that teachers of specific subjects (e.g French and Spanish) are PRESENTLY paid to mark the SBA component? Their participation is not a mandatory requirement of their employment. Can it therefore be said that precedents have been set? Two precedents in fact may have been established. The first is that payment for SBA assessment does occur and secondly that SBA assessment and reporting (as distinct from the guidance and instruction of students in preparation of the SBA) is at the discretion of teachers.

  45. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    At the end of his article today in the Nation @ http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/65449/jeff-broomes-pillars-educator
    As he clearly continues his war with Mary Redman, Jeff Bromes subtly asserts “There was a time when tests were given, papers corrected and marks entered. Assessment done! Those days are long gone. Contemporary education is about operational performance. It is no longer about knowing and telling; it’s more focused on understanding and putting to use.

    Assessment, although now authentic, continues to be the duty of all teachers. In the sports and cultural areas some students leave the school compound for viewing, interviewing and performing. In most others, assessments are done at school during school time and have earned the name school-based assessments.

    These authentic assessments form part of our duties for which we are compensated. How can we see it otherwise? Oh Shylock, take your pound of flesh but let not a drop of blood escape.”

  46. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    Dear Douglas or Dear DLP (same thing right?)

    In this issue Mary Redman and the teacher’s unions are right. Let the CXC do the honorable thing. Massa day dun dead. Neither CXC nor the various Ministries of Education shold expect teachers to do free work.

    As Donville the great said with regards to NOT taking a pay cut “I have bills to pay too”

    Teachers have bills to pay too.

    Pay the people thiei money do.

  47. Sid Boyce Avatar
    Sid Boyce

    “future leaders” eh?
    Many fools have become leaders.

    What about the producers that any country needs to not be beggars and borrowers living off the labours of the countries that translate education into production?

    I have commented about Singapore here on a number of occasions only to be told that Singaporeans would one day catch on to the idea that they are exploited and one friend mentioned Singapore’s lack of “freedom”, I suppose freedom to become useless is the mark of wisdom in some eyes.

    Yet Singapore, a tiny island a little larger than Barbados, which is not the other side of the world from China is the one place immigrants from China and Europe seek as a haven for progress.

    As has been said on the plaque in honour of their late prime minister Mr. Lee, (from memory) a debt owed that cannot be repaid but forever honoured.
    Singapore recognises and is thankful to Mr. Lee for taking that small island from a poor third world country dependent on selling Japanese cameras and watches to tourists and on the cash spent and work provided by British bases to where it is the beacon for the progress made in its transition to a first world country to be envied rather than a small island dependent on China. Through good leadership that provided a world class education and a productive workforce, Singapore didn’t transition from a British colony to a Chinese colony.

    Too many chiefs and not enough indians is in no way an engine for progress.

  48. Dacosta Brathwaite Avatar
    Dacosta Brathwaite

    Every one knows that CXC is not the teachers employer but the teachers accepted the responsibility to prepare students according to the CXC guidelines. I wonder if Mary Redman and company heard what the Head of the PTA had to say after the town hall meeting. His parting words were to the effect that some of the same teachers whom the BSTU and BUT are advising not to mark the SBA’s, have children preparing for the upcoming CSEC and CAPE Examinations and would do nothing to jeopardize their charges’ future. Can’t you see that what Mary Redman and company are doing, is an exercise in futility? Can’t you see that the children of the majority of Barbadians, like yourself will suffer? The majority of the ones like Mary Redman attend Private Secondary Schools and their teachers will be correcting their SBA’s? Can’t you see that the children of the other 15 Caribbean countries which participate in the CXC Exams will have their SBA’s marked?

  49. findthetruth Avatar
    findthetruth

    The truth about testing our children, why its being done and who’s behind it. This is the hole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God. http://abcsofdumbdown.blogspot.com/

  50. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Sid Boyce March 30, 2015 at 5:50 AM
    “Through good leadership that provided a world class education and a productive workforce, Singapore didn’t transition from a British colony to a Chinese colony.”

    Any attempt to favourably compare Barbados with Singapore is both a no-brainer and a non-starter. Barbados has become a regressively developing country falling from No. 20 in 1994 to No. 59 in 2014. Singapore at No. 9 has achieved first world status.
    Barbados is a land now managed by a bunch of mis-educated misfits and duplicitous talkers with too many callous irresponsible undisciplined people who don’t gave two hoots about the environment and see littering as badge of honour.

    Do you really feel the leaders of a country that cannot even remove rubbish off the streets that pose a serious threat to public health can ever even think about doing or getting the people to do what Singaporeans have done moving their country from a tropical backwater to an economic powerhouse in less than 60 years?

    Barbados was the tropical jewel in the Crown when intelligent honest hardworking people were in charge.
    Where is it now other than behaving like a real banana republic slipping and sliding to a hellhole of political corruption and social decay?

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