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Barbados

CXC National Committee Report - 2017

The Barbados National Committee of the Caribbean Examinations Council held its meeting
st
on Thursday 21 October, 2017. The meeting was convened to discuss matters pertaining to
the administration of examinations conducted by CXC and to report to the Caribbean
Examination Council. This report presents the main issues that were addressed during the
meeting.

MAIN ISSUES ADDRESSED

2. Administration of Examinations

There was general discussion among committee members regarding the administration of the
2017 examinations. It was revealed that while the process generally went smoothly, there
were some challenges experienced during the process. Despite the challenges, the various
actors worked diligently to ensure that no candidate was disadvantaged and the integrity of
the examinations was not compromised.

The committee was apprised of changes made to the structure of some examinations and
articulated by CXC in January. Members expressed concern about the way in which the
information surrounding those changes were communicated to stakeholders with the
information being placed first on the CXC Website rather than official notification through
the Ministry of Education. The changes showed that most of the exams now have compulsory
questions.

During the period under review, the CXC served notice of a change in its assessment policy.
There was concern however, that notification of the change in policy came after the CXC had
publicly served notice of the changes.

3. E-Testing

The National Committee was informed that CXC was moving forward with the expansion of
e-testing across the region. Whereas CXC has implemented E-Testing, Barbados was not
fully prepared to participate in this option. The committee was however informed that the
Ministry had requested to retain the option for paper-based exams at this time since the
required infrastructure to accommodate e-testing at the national level to cater to candidates
across public and private institutions was not available across all examination centres.

Members of the National Committee were informed that even though Barbados had received
a generous gift of technological equipment from the People’s Republic of China for the
Fiftieth anniversary of Independence, the country was still not ready to embrace the E-
Testing option provided by CXC.

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