MoE meets secondary school teachers regarding CSEC and CAPE exams

The Education Ministry has started a series of consultations with secondary school teachers across the country to ensure students are provided with the best opportunities to perform optimally at the upcoming Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE).

Subject Minister, Priya Manickchand along with the Chief Education Officer, Dr Marcel Hutson, and other education officials met with CSEC and CAPE teachers from all eleven education districts in the country.
The objective of the engagement was to listen to the concerns and challenges faced by teachers and find solutions that will guide decisions to help students better prepare for the examination.
Teachers from Regions Two, Three, Five, and Georgetown were engaged in the first of a two-part meeting, while teachers from Regions One, Four, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, and 10 were engaged in the second meeting.
The Education Minister said that following the results of both examinations at the 2020 sitting, many students were marked poorly for several reasons and as such, it has been a priority of the Ministry to address any gaps that may exist so that a recurrence can be prevented.
She underlined the importance of students submitting School-Based Assessments and committed the Ministry’s support to that process.
Various points were raised by teachers during the meetings, all of which have been recorded by the Ministry so that they can be addressed immediately.
According to the Ministry, similar engagements are expected to be continued to further maintain a productive relationship with stakeholders to achieve the desired outcomes and improve the education sector.
Last week, several stakeholders had called for the extension of the CSEC and CAPE examinations, but Minister Manickchand had contended that the dates remain unchanged, saying that it is a regional examination, and the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) is responsible for finalising the timeline.
“Any kind of CXC exams, except for NGSA, is not a decision we can take by ourselves in Guyana. We can advocate vociferously and aggressively about what our students want and what would be in their best interest but it is not something we can do by ourselves. It’s a regional exam. Personally, I think the exams could have been put back a little bit. We cannot continue or begin as though we did not sit it out for two years. Guyana is the first country that went back into schools so our children are not that badly off but at this stage, the exams remain when they were scheduled for,” she had said.
With the education sector now recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are still hesitations on the issue of reopening schools across the country. Manickchand had underscored that the country must remain steadfast, sit the exams and formulate actions to address recovery.
“We are physically ready. We will have the exam paper in July, which is set and marked by CXC. I think now though, we are now seeing an unfolding across the country, in the Ministry, of the effects of two years of school closure. It was something a lot of people dealt with lightly. The Opposition still is calling for schools to remain closed,” she said.
Manickchand had revealed last Monday that sections of the population are lobbying for schools to remain closed, noting that there can be a higher dropout rate if schools are to remain closed.
In this regard, Manickchand had announced last week that schools across Guyana will be fully open to face-to-face learning as it was pre-pandemic on April 25.
The Minister told media operatives on the sidelines of an event that there will be a staggered opening so as to not overwhelm the system. At present, there has been some degree of classroom activity on a rotation basis.