Dear Stakeholders
I am pleased to commend the 2017 Annual Report to you.

The year 2017 would be recorded as a significant year for the Council, for one major reason – electronic testing! In every organization, there are defining moments, and just 1979 was a defining moment when CXC offered its first examinations, January 2017 will forever be a defining moment, the time CXC offered its first electronic tests at CSEC®. This watershed moment has changed the Caribbean examinations landscape once and for all.

CXC offered e-testing in 12 subjects in the January 2017 sitting for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC®) examinations. The offering was confined to the multiple choice paper only, and 500 candidates from seven Participating Countries wrote the examinations via the new medium.

This initial offering presented the Council with the opportunity to measure the acceptance by candidates, its implementation across the territories that participated, and to work out any kinks in preparation for the larger May/June sitting. The experience proved rewarding for both candidates and examinations administrators alike.

During 2017, e-marking continued apace with almost 100 per cent of subjects being marked electronically. While there are some challenges with e-marking that CXC is working assiduously to resolve, for the most part, it has been a relatively smooth transition from face-to-face marking. Additional training has been provided for e-markers in some territories to ensure that a cadre of well-trained markers is always available.

As CXC continues the journey to achieve excellent stakeholder experience, financial stability and sustainable business model, several programming initiatives were implemented during the year under review towards accomplishing these objectives. These include the marketing campaign to attract both the out-of-school population and in-school candidates to write additional subjects; increased stakeholder engagement, publication of the CXC Customer Service Charter, launch of the CXC Connect APP, streamlining examinations administration processes, achieving efficiencies in operational cost and making the technology infrastructure more robust.

I urge you to read about these exciting initiatives through the pages of this report and take some time to send us your feedback.

I end with my sincerest gratitude to the CXC team and all resource persons: markers, panel members, chief examiners, moderators – without whom the work of the Council would not be possible. The journey to examinations on demand and reducing our reliance on government financing by 2020 continues in 2018.