CXC- Time to Get it Right!
Tennyson Joseph, UWI lecturer and political scientist shared a personal experience in his recent weekly column. While it is a personal experience, it scrutinises and exposes decision making at the highest level by education planners in the region. We must do better if we are to compete on the world stage, especially being able to cover-off rudimentary decisions.
See article reproduced from Nationnews.com.
Another CXC mis-step
I WRITE IN MY capacity as a concerned and frustrated parent, in response to an incident which occurred during the conduct of the CSEC English B (English Literature) multiple choice exam on Friday May 27, 2022.
Originally intended to be a two-hour exam (from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m), my daughter exited the exam room at 5:30 p.m., with other students having streamed out a few minutes before, this is on a day when they had already had a morning paper from 9 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. Essentially, therefore, the affected students were kept under examinations conditions for seven hours.
What was the issue? It appears that a decision was taken to conduct all CXC multiple-choice examinations online without ensuring that the necessary IT infrastructure to support such examinations was in place. Given that English B is compulsory for all students at my daughter’s school, the demand overload proved overwhelming, and many students had to sit for hours waiting, without success, for the exam App to open. Some were successful at various periods after the start, while others’ systems crashed mid-exam.
My daughter was one of the unfortunate ones whose apps failed to open, and she reported to me that after two hours of waiting, and going through a range of negative emotions, a decision was taken to allow the examination to be done in the old fashioned, but reliable way.
My aim is not to question the judgement of the onsite invigilators and decision-makers. What is concerning is the poor judgment of CXC decision makers, who, by insisting on online multiplechoice examinations, appear to be operating on the assumption that “man is made for technology rather than technology made for man”.
Two issues are of concern here. The first is that, after the loud public outcry and loss of goodwill experienced by CXC over the conduct of examinations during the 2019 COVID period, that CXC did not consider it prudent to put a pause on all “experimentation” to allow for a period of cooling off period and a return to normalcy.
Secondly, given the importance of assessments as measurements of student quality and as a determinant of life chances, great care should be taken to ensure that there is nothing intrinsic to an examination environment that can negatively affect student performance. CXC ought to have assured itself of near 100 per cent success prior to utilising new technology in examinations.
CXC is too important to allow these constant hints of weakness. It should be airtight and the least problematic of our institutions. My recommendation to CXC is that it should perfect the basic aspects of its mandate, before venturing off into new territory, especially at a time when the stench of recent failures still pollute the atmosphere. For the sake of our children and the educational “ecosystem”, let us get it right.
Barbados Underground 
How much of the 2×3 island is ghetto?
How much is Heights and Gardens? Did I grow up in a ghetto?
Do we have projects?
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@Bush Tea June 3, 2022 10:22 PM “@Simple minded Simon. So why not have 100% of Bajans be university graduates then? is THIS not even better than 30%..?
..and what is so hard about that? All you would have to do is charge the Government $100,000 per year per student …and let the happy lot lime down at Cave Hill talking shiite and taking ‘polls’ for three years. PRESTO… you have 370,000 ‘graduates’….for only 4 billion borrowed dollars. Steupsss.”
Your suggestion. NOT mine.
So you can go ahead and implement it.
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@Bush Tea “and let the happy lot lime down at Cave Hill talking shiite and taking ‘polls’ for three years.”
My response: Again your foolish suggestion, NOT mine. I expect students to work hard and to work well. I’ve NEVER suggested liming, you have.
@Bush Tea “The REAL POINT of a university is to filter out, and REFINE to world class standards, the TRULY talented LEADERS with which the society is BLESSED. This is typically about 1% of any random sample.”
Where did you get this 1% nonsense?
Can you please document for BU which countries with 1% college/university graduates are doing better than countries with much higher percentages of college/university graduates?
Thanks.
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@ TheOGazerts who asked ” Did I grow up in a ghetto? Do we have projects?”
You went to Kolij.You should know. lol
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EXCUSES EXCUSES EXCUSES.
THERE IS NO LEADERSHIP ON THE 2X3 ISLAND.
BLACKS MAKING EACH OTHER SUFFER AFTER 50 YEARS IN POWER, SOME WILL SAY NEED ANOTHER 100 YEARS TO GET IT RIGHT BECAUSE OF PAST TRAUMAS.
FIRST THE NURSES, CBC WORKERS, VOLUNTEERS AND I CAN GO ON AND ON WITH THE BULLSHIT ON THE 2X3 ISLAND WHILST BLACK FAMILIES LESSER FORTUNATE SUFFERS.
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“I’ve worked from January and there are also volunteers who worked from January and the last time we were paid was in December. I’ve worked January, February and March and there has been no sort of payment,” she complained.
“This is June, a whole six months later and we are still waiting to be paid. How do they expect us to be able to put food on our tables and support our families if we are going three, four, five and now six months without getting paid?”
https://barbadostoday.bb/2022/06/03/volunteers-reveal-they-have-not-received-wages-since-december/
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@TheOGazerts June 4, 2022 12:38 PM “How much of the 2×3 island is ghetto? How much is Heights and Gardens? Did I grow up in a ghetto? Do we have projects?”
I grew up in a rural village. Everybody was poor, barefoot poor, but I did not then or now considered it to be a ghetto. Everybody was striving to make life better for themselves and especially for their children. Neighbors did not prey on each other. My old man born more than 110 years ago was without a doubt poorer than anybody on this blog. Yet he raised all his children safely to adulthood. Nobody ever had to call the police or a lawyer, or a politician for any of them. But he used to speak about “poor-minded” that is a ghetto of the mind.
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I grew up in a rural village. Everybody was poor, barefoot poor, but I did not then or now considered it to be a ghetto.
WHAT A REAL ASS IF YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND SOMETHING RESEARCH IT BEFORE SHOWING YOUR SILLY ASS
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ghetto
noun
a part of a city, especially a slum area, occupied by a minority group or groups.
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Nobody should have to wait 3 to 6 months for their pay cheque.
For their first pay cheque weekly paid workers should be paid in later than 14 days after starting work. Workers paid twice per month should be paid by day 28 at latest, and monthly workers by day 60 at latest.
If this is not happening something needs to be fixed.
Most poor people have little to fall back and. They need their money. And to quote Scripture “a laborer is worthy of his wages”
1 Timothy 5:18
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I’ve heard a middle aged heavy drinking town man refer to my village as a ghetto. As in “I can’t wait to get out of this ghetto.” He was renting a very nice 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom [wall] house, with electricity, water, telephone, wifi, and solar water heating, fence too. The village has since the 1960’s had paved roads, bus service was 5 minutes walk from his door, he owned a car and he and his wife both childless were both gainfully employed. A lovely beach was less than 10 minutes drive away. A library, post office, public health clinic, private doctors, supermarkets, clothing stores etc. were all within 15 minutes drive. And yet he felt ghettoised.
I wonder if sometimes ghetto is not mainly of the mind.
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Ran into this… Is this where we are heading? Are we there as some are saying?
https://www.royalgazette.com/other/business/article/20200213/most-would-not-believe-the-poverty-in-cayman/
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CXC has to be watched….today is Whit Monday and CXC has the students taking Biology tests…
their useless APP CRASHED during the Math test and had children spending unnecessary hours waiting for the program to work nearly 6pm in the evening……..the program which they did not give themselves sufficient time to test IS CRAP…
not too long ago, they had kids wading through a flood to do exams with leaking roofs and everything…
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The eligible voter turn out is about 43%. A party receiving as low as 22% can win an election.
Ridiculous scenario
Look at the possible mathematics
22% x 30=30
21% x 30=0
91 – 0 in your tail
I can see a time where you will begging for more people to vote. With proper safeguards in place we can increase the number of voters.
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Source: Nation
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They do not have the SKILLS, DISCIPLINE or COMPETENCY to effectively implement anything,
no matter HOW ARE HARD THEY TRY, NO ONE in the Caribbean or on the continent of Afrika will follow Slave Society Barbados to nowhere…..they are too NOTORIOUS…dangerous and destructive….to AFRIKAN LIVES…
“BLACKS MAKING EACH OTHER SUFFER AFTER 50 YEARS IN POWER, SOME WILL SAY NEED ANOTHER 100 YEARS TO GET IT RIGHT BECAUSE OF PAST TRAUMAS.”
it’s only BUs anonymous clowns talking shite about “patience” over 300 years of chattel slavery and over 150 years OF BONDANGE and social/financial disenfranchisement…..and the idiots still want to sit and wait and believe they sound so clear….steupppsss…
all ya hear everywhere is people lamenting they are NOT BEING PAID…slave island…
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Barbados echo chamber was talking about it’s ambition to be a Global IT player in the Big League
As an IT Subject Matter Expert with skills and experience in all stages of Software Development Lifecycle from business analysis thru > design > development > system testing > user acceptance testing & signoff > implementation > post-implementation support and further modifications development
I testify that all systems are shit
Systems Failures are the Industry Standard
Them Never Know
Natty Dread Have Credentials
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Let me make myself clearER! My recent comment was calling for patience with average Bajans, commonly known on this site as “BRASS BOWLS”. I suggested that THE PEOPLE need time and patient coaching to come into the fulness of their identity as the descendants of Africans. They need time and coaching to put away their fake and forced “Little Englandness” and retrieve their fighting spirit.
I would expect those who rise to political leadership to be smart enough to have long rid themselves of the eurocentric folly as I did while still a child watching Saturday morning cowboy and “indian” movies. They should be ready to govern FOR THEIR PEOPLE, recognising that they will remain NOBODIES and JOKES on the worldstage, mere puppets to be played with until they access the true power that comes with fighting “righteous” causes for the right reasons.
THAT is the way to earn the respect of those who would write you off as insignificant.
Now, go back and see that my comment was in response to somebody berating the Bajan people for not responding forcefully enough to being ripped off!
Or…continue to get your jollies by calling me whatever pleases you today.
I, however, will be engaged in more pleasant pursuits.
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TheO,
The last thing we need if for us to stop voting and youall to start.
If we don’t vote there is a chance, however slight, that the duopoly will get the message and will realise that “dum en mek dumselves”.
Why would we want overseas voters to cloud that message?
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Correction – “is” not “if”.
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Baje,
What I meant was that not everybody is strong enough to do what you have done. Some just go with the flow or follow the leader.
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In The Ghetto, Sugar Minott, Zion Land, Calabash & Fourth Generation Band
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Bullwackie’s All Stars
KEEP ON RUNNING ⬥Major Irie & Wackies Rhythm Force⬥
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WHAT A REAL ASS IF YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND SOMETHING RESEARCH IT BEFORE SHOWING YOUR SILLY ASS
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ghetto
noun
a part of a city, especially a slum area, occupied by a minority group or groups.
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Let me try to understand something here.
Black people is who live in the slums and them is the MAJORITY GROUP bout here.
So what is it that you really trying to say? You like you is the real ass here yuh, because it look like you ain’t really apply commonsense to this thing.
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Source: Nation
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Read this story and weep.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2022/06/10/cxc-students-get-reprieve-from-online-testing-at-some-schools/
Why was there this haste to start ….
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