The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) takes pride in presenting this document to you our stakeholders each year as an account of our stewardship during the year under review. I trust that you find the information contained in the report most useful and enlightening.
At the beginning of the year, I outlined what I termed the 2016 Work Programme for CXC. The programme encapsulates CXC three strategic objectives: strengthening business model, securing financial stability and enhancing stakeholder experience. Under each of these objectives, I articulated specific deliverables that CXC will accomplish during the year. I would now report on the outcome of some of these deliverables.
Efforts to increase candidates’ registration for CXC examinations offerings got a boost with the launch of marketing campaign in September. The campaign under the tag line “You’re In Control” uses traditional press, online and mobile advertisements to target specific audiences. It is anticipated that the results of the campaign will be realised in late 2016 and early 2017.
As we continue to ensure the relevance of syllabuses, three New Generation CAPE subjects were launched during the year. These new subjects – Green Engineering, Animation and Game Design and Financial Services – have been welcomed by stakeholders in the respective disciplines. At the CCSLC level, SUBSEC has approved the concept papers for the development of syllabuses for Mandarin and Dutch. Given the growing importance of China and relevance of the Netherlands in the region, it is imperative that the region’s human resource is equipped to adequately interact with people from these two nations.
Our work with the Dutch Caribbean islands has begun to pay dividends. CXC hosted two visits of various Dutch delegations during 2016 and teams from CXC visited Saba and St Eustatius to conduct orientation and training workshops. Saba and St Eustatius, the Caribbean Netherlands, and CXC have a Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate a more active involvement of the islands in CXC. The islands have committed to taking CPEA and CCSLC and are actively exploring the implementation of the CVQ.
For the first time, CXC conducted a customer satisfaction survey and while we had hoped to achieve a minimum score of 70 per cent satisfaction, we fell just short of the target. Principals and Teachers rated CXC at 68 per cent, markers 64 per cent and students rated us at 60 per cent satisfaction level. This indicates that we have to improve our service to stakeholders. Using these results, CXC will work to implement a customer service charter in early 2017 as one strategy to improve service delivery to stakeholders.
In an effort to improve communication and messaging to our stakeholders, we started a monthly communications bulletin in January 2016. The bulletin is disseminated to fifty thousand stakeholders and chronicles the work and activities of CXC on a monthly basis. While the bulletins are generally text based, the June bulletin was produced as a short video. The response from stakeholders to the monthly communications bulletin has been encouraging thus far.
Another initiative which has been keeping stakeholders abreast with information is the hosting of webinars. For the year in review, 27 webinars were held dealing with topics such as e-marking, School Based Assessment, preparing for the world of work, preparing for examinations, CVQ, Caribbean History, Science subjects, Mathematics and English. By using the webinar CXC is leveraging the available technology to the benefit of its stakeholders.
We have been able to complete the examination cycles and provide candidates with their results. Some recurring challenges have affected the efficiency of the processes. This is most unacceptable and will be addressed by meticulous planning before the execution of the 2017 cycles. We take our responsibility seriously and with the support of our stakeholders we aim to do better each year.
In the final analysis, CXC wants to see a larger certified workforce in the Caribbean. In this regard CXC strives to increase registration and improve performance. As it relates to the latter, CXC has established two working groups, one for English and the other for Mathematics. The groups comprise well-respected academics, teachers, curriculum officers and other experts who are investigating the continued low performance in these two subjects. The working groups have submitted their reports with recommendations for improving performance and these reports will form part of the work programme in 2017.
During the year under review much was accomplished, however, I am particular happy to report that significant progress was made towards the implementation of electronic testing. Come January and May/June 2017, all of the multiple choice papers will be electronically tested. Recognising the significant paradigm shift that is e-marking, CXC conducted a pilot in April to give territories and students an opportunity to experience e-testing. In addition, practice tests were posted on the examinations portal for students to access and practice over a two-month period.
I take this opportunity to express my sincerest thanks to the staff of CXC, all the resource persons who assist us in carrying out our work, ministries of education for their unwavering support and all stakeholders who make these efforts worthwhile.
Mr Glenroy Cumberbatch
Registrar
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