MUSINGS of a Free Thinker #3: A tropical storm in the making

The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not necessarily those of Breaking Belize News.

Alberto Vellos is a former Youth leader & former Commonwealth Caribbean Regional Youth Caucus representative for Belize.

By Alberto Vellos: Aside from a few cases of rumblings that immediately followed the revealing of individual Caribbean Examination Council CSEC/CAPE grades to Belizean students, I have not heard more from parents, students, and teachers about the credible reports of a high number of ungraded results.

The issue is not a Belize-one, rather it has surfaced like an “80% chance of development” tropical disturbance at a regional level and over the past days, the ungraded exam phenomenon has been reported in various Caribbean countries including Barbados, Antigua & Barbuda, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago.

There are also reports that CSEC and CAPE grades are much lower this year than previous years in Belize. The CXC office in Belize would not comment when I contacted a while ago. If the reports bear some or complete truth, it would not be too surprising since all top-level decision-makers proceeded to require students to take up a mentally-strenuous exam during the advent of COVID19 in Belize. This is a period which saw the introduction of emergency shutdowns and quarantine measures enforcing laws imposing restriction of movement, curfew hours, social distancing and mandatory wearing of masks in public. ALL who in their ‘right’ minds believed it was appropriate to require our students to sit these critical exams, under those circumstances, should be held accountable to the parents who, for wanting better for their sons and daughters, coughed up monies for the exam, and, also the students whose academic record may now introduce unnecessary and long-term grief.

The exam should have also perhaps been reconsidered for the following reasons: the pandemic shortened the regular school period forcing Fourth Form teachers to grapple with not being able to meet the full course curriculum.

Additionally, teachers were required to give online lessons during which most times not all students were able to focus or even attend for obvious reasons that were not too evident for the decision-makers apparently. Introducing online teaching so abruptly would understandably not work as expected. Online teaching is not just a new practice but a cultural shift and requires strategic and not spontaneous introduction. Also, online teaching necessitates a level of discipline that most of our students are not used to and will take some time to get used to. It is under these circumstances that our students were made to sit these crucial regional exams.

Students and parents in Barbados have launched protests, while at least one leading high school in Guyana has threatened legal action and could lobby for a formal withdrawal from the CXC.

I have been wondering for the past days why is it that with all the murmuring throughout the Caribbean, Belize has been so quiet at the official level. Maybe the reports of unsatisfactory grades are not true, but there sure is a trend across the region this year. There is also no word from school administrators (some who seem too willing to tow MoE’s line), and most worrying, not a whisper from the Minister of Education. On the latter, the Minister has for several years struggled to give proper explanations for unsatisfactory PSE results at the primary school level and would now have to contend with unsatisfactory CSEC/CAPE results at the secondary school level. It would not look good to his quest for national leadership at this time.

While Minister Faber seems to be asleep at the wheels, other Ministers of Education throughout our region are not and have shown that it is important to hold the regional examination body accountable.

For example, Minister Santia Bradshaw held an urgent press conference last week, demanding that CXC carry out an “urgent investigation” into the unprecedented number of student concerns over the recently released CAPE and CSEC exam results.

In a statement, Grenada’s Minister of Education Emmalin Pierre, said that candidates received ungraded results due to an issue with incomplete SBA uploads as well as “a glitch in CXC’s SBA uploads automated response system”.

Minister of Education in St. Kitts and Nevis, Jonel Powell, has also not remained quiet about the concerns, despite a national passing grade of 84%. On Monday, September 28th, he held a press conference to put out a detailed breakdown of the national results and revealed that a concerning number of CXC grades were returned ungraded. Powell encouraged dissatisfied students to challenge the results through CXC’s official Query and Review process, and indicated that they will request that the U.S.$30 review fee be waived.

In a statement released by CXC, they not only reminded all that there is a cost to carry out a review but that students have up to 30 days to make such request for a review. This means the clock is ticking for students in Belize. Teachers, parents, and students…the usual lackadaisical approach to most things will not cut it. Get organized and stand up for our young people’s future, even if your leaders are not prepared to.

CXC’s Chairman Sir Hilary Beckles announced today that an independent review team will investigate the specific challenges that have caused widespread concerns, but the investigation seems based ONLY on the specific review requests received from students.

On a final but very important note, I thank my Caribbean colleague Corey Worrell for spurring this discussion. Keep enlightening my brother.

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