Dear Editor,
With regards to your news report and letters, I support Education Minister Priya Manickchand’s call for an inquiry into discrepancies relating to this year’s CXC results. I disagree with the Minister’s handling of and commentary on UG, the subject of a different commentary.
There is a feeling that the CXC papers were incorrectly or inappropriately graded. Some apparently went missing. For many years, I was involved in grading New York State exams. When there were complaints or apparent discrepancies, including missing papers, there were investigations. The same should happen at CXC headquarters in Barbados.
Students are protesting the grading. They deserve an explanation. They paid money for the exams and they studied hard. They deserve a fair grading process. There are complaints in other territories also.
When grading or handling tens of thousands of papers, it is conceivably possible that papers could inadvertently be misplaced. For me, the principal issue is the discrepancy involving a grade of “absent” when students claimed and provided proof that they actually sat the exam. That in and of itself warrants an investigation into the entire handling of CXC for this year.
Something is amiss and definitely went wrong in the handling of students’ papers. CXC management must launch an investigation. Ministry of Education must demand an investigation.
Separately, I applaud students who performed exceedingly well in spite of hiccups with the grading and disappearance of papers.
Yours truly,
Vishnu Bisram
