TAU introduces free online platform to help students prepare for CXC

The Texila American University (TAU) has launched an online platform that would assist students to prepare for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination by enhancing their learning and providing a mock review of multiple-choice questions.

The initiative, dubbed ‘CXC Academy’, is free of cost to all Guyanese students as well to teachers wanting to use the platform.
CXC Academy focuses heavily on Paper One training in seven subject areas, namely: Mathematics, English, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Principles of Business and Principles of Accounts.

During a virtual launch on Wednesday, Chief Executive Officer of Texila American University Guyana, Syam Kumar, explained that this initiative is part of the Texila consortium’s corporate social responsibility, and is a way of giving back to Guyana and its people for their support over the years.
“We have further plans to enhance the portfolio and add more subjects and more questions over a period of time with the Academy… I sincerely hope that this initiative will pave way for further technological advancement in the field of education in Guyana, not only in higher education, where we focus on, but also at the level of secondary and post-secondary education,” Kumar posited.
The ‘CXC Academy’ platform was developed in partnership with Texila Group’s homeschooling project – SmartLab – in Texas, United States, and also with contributions from local teachers and experts in creating the content.
It has been noted that this initiative had been in the works for several years now, but materialised only over the last two months.
“Texila’s parent company also operates an online university system where we have graduated thousands of students across the globe, and that is one area where we believe that we can further support initiatives of the Government of Guyana where it is needed… We are there to support, in any way we can, the Government and people of Guyana as much as possible within our capacity, and CXC Academy is a good testimony of our intentions and our plans for the people and government of Guyana,” the TAU CEO contended.
Meanwhile, Education Minister Priya Manickchand has lauded the University for responding to the needs of Guyana’s education system, which, like those around the world, was thrown into chaos due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“One of my first questions after hearing a very impression presentation of how they were going to roll out this online lesion for innumerable and incalculable number of students (was): how much is this going to cost our students? Is it going to be free? Are you going to add more questions? Are you going to add more subjects? And for every question we asked, we got exactly the answer we were looking for… Texila is leading in this,” Manickchand asserted.
She added that since coming to Guyana, Texila has pioneered offshore teaching, and has now stepped up to not only assist Guyanese students, but also those in the Caribbean region.
To this end, the Education Minister implored other private institutions to emulate Texila’s actions.
“While you may have started with good intentions for education, we often get caught up with the fiscal nature or benefits that a university can offer, and the fact that it is coming at no cost to our country and our students is hugely commendable and really something to emulate… I encourage others, not only educational institutions like Texila, corporate bodies in this country and in the region, to contribute to education as best as you can, and I guarantee you you will see rewards, perhaps not tomorrow, but you will see rewards in the long term,” she stressed.
Minister Manickchand further encourage students, especially those preparing to write CXC exams later this year, to take advantage of this facility.
The platform is targeting students in Grades 10 and 11 but can also be access by other Grades as well as persons who are rewriting the examinations. No age limit has been set for the programme.
In fact, the Education Minister noted that event prisoners who sometimes write CXC as part of their rehabilitative programme can also access the platform.
Persons will have to register to access the content, which features unlimited attempts to answer the questions.