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UNACCEPTABLE SYSTEM FOR ADDRESS OF QUERIES.

                A  Issuance of a well-publicized and more comprehensive statement that clarifies what the
                    “Administrative  check”  involves  and  explains  how  such  check  either  prompts  further
                    interrogation of students’ scripts or results in no change.
                B   A case is proffered for a more in-depth service instead of the superficial administrative
                    check as a better fit with the expectations, of parents, needs of students and the high fee
                    incurred.

               The release of incorrect results, as discussed in the previous item, emphasizes the need to re-
               visit the new position of CXC in terms of how the query of students’ results are treated. Apart
               from having no clear understanding of this new system which mainly focuses on providing
               “an administrative check” and what this involves, other questions arise, such as:
                o  How does such a “check” determine that no further action is needed or may prompt a
                    further rigorous interrogation of students’ scripts?
                o  Given CXC conducts e marking, is the actual script re-examined or the scans? Reports
                    have been received of scans missing pages, incorrectly labeled, or incorrectly collated so
                    pages from scripts of two students are mixed. Moreso, where students have to submit
                    drawings and diagrams, the scan may not adequately replicate all essential features.
                o  Reports on testing, specifically for Digital Media, indicated that students’ files were not
                    received in their entirety, despite the required assessment activities being completed by
                    the students. As a result of irregularities arising from e testing, students’ may also be
                    unfairly assigned a poor grade and the present system for addressing queries does not
                    effectively allow for interrogating such.
                o   In  such  a  tiered  approach  to  addressing  queries,  why  is  one  significantly  large  fee
                    applied across the board? With services that are tiered, the fee structure should also be
                    tiered.
                o  As a matter of fact, it can be argued, given current perception of what the “administrative
                    check” involves, no fee should be incurred as this payment is being tendered to CXC for
                    a service which is already being contracted by the MOE, that is to exercise due diligence
                    in faithfully and accurately transfer students’ scores from marked scripts to a system that
                    correctly  tally  their  total.  Why  should  parents  pay  at  all,  for  a  check  that  this  an
                    operational task CXC must execute with due diligence?
                o  What is expected from a query are; a review to ensure all responses or parts thereof were
                    marked and accurately scores or a re-mark to ensure students’ responses are correctly
                    interpreted and the mark schemes applied with fidelity. No one should be expected to
                    pay CXC for ensuring that scores were accurately transferred and totaled.

               There is currently no data available to give concrete insight into the significance of this issue
               in  terms  of how many  queries are tended and the scope of changes  as  well as  number of
               incidents of unchanged results (CSEC or CAPE). CXC conducts this function directly with
               schools so the MOE has no effective means to monitor this facility. However, reference is
               made to a report on responses to queries of the SEA (appendix 1) where it is apparent that the



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