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The Panel, in response to these suggestions, carefully examined the topics in the syllabus to ensure
that they are in keeping with how the construct for Information Technology is defined.

18. Ten (59 per cent) respondents agreed that the SBA requirements for the syllabus should
remain the same while seven (41 per cent) respondents indicated that they should not. Two of the
respondents who indicated that the requirements for the SBA should be changed supported their
response by citing time as a constraint in completing the SBA, while two respondents suggested that
Visual Basics for Application (VBA) should not be the only Program option built into the SBA. Similarly,
the Focus Group raised concerns about the inclusion of VBA as the only programming language. Having
considered the concerns raised, the Panel took the decision to reintroduce Pascal as another language
option. Therefore, students have the option of using either VBA or Pascal to complete the SBA task.

19. The Focus Group raised concerns about the weighting of Papers 01 and 02 as they felt that
the proposed weighting could lead to a devaluing and under-testing of Programing and over-testing
of Productivity Tools. This position was supported by one respondent to the survey who suggested an
increase to the weighting for Problem Solving and Programming and a decrease to the weighting for
the Productivity Tools. The Panel considered the suggestions and amended the weighting accordingly.
The changes to the weighing have been captured in Table 1 below.

Table 1
Changes to Weighting for Papers 01 and 02

PAPER EXISTING SYLLABUS PROPOSED SYLLABUS
60 Multiple Choice Items 60 Multiple Choice Items
40 items from Sections 1,2 and 3 35 items from Sections 1, 2 and 3
PAPER 01 15 items from Sections 4, 5 and 6 15 items from Sections 4, 5 and 6

5 items from Sections 7 and 8 10 items from Sections 7 and 8

Four Compulsory structured questions Four compulsory structured questions

Theory Profile: 30 marks Theory Profile: 35 marks
PAPER 02 Productivity Tools Profile: 40 marks Productivity Tools Profile: 30 marks

Problem-Solving and programming Problem-Solving and programming
Profile: 20 marks Profile: 25 marks

Comments from Specialists

20. The Assistant Registrar/SCD advised the Panel that the revised draft Information Technology
Syllabus was also sent to Mr Halzen Smith, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer and
Information Sciences, Northern Caribbean University, Jamaica; Dr Wessel Thomas, Principal Lecturer,
University of Technology, Jamaica; Dr Colin Depradine, Dean, Faculty of Science and Technology,
University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados; Dr Rene Jordan, Chief Examiner, CAPE® Computer
Science and Lecturer, Department of Computing and Information Technology, University of the West
Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago; and, Dr Ezra Mugisa, Senior Lecturer, Department of

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