BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC®) will host its Inaugural Ministerial Summit on Educational Assessment, virtually, on Tuesday 23 November 2021 from 9:00 AM AST, live streamed via CXC® TV, www.cxc.org/cxctv and UWI TV www.uwitv.org.
The event will be held under the theme Facilitating Transformation Through Assessment and will engage education policymakers, from across the region, in high-level dialogue. The agenda includes keynote addresses and Roundtable discussions where participants will explore the curriculum policy in various territories, with particular emphasis on new topical areas for learning, approaches in teaching and strategies for assessment.
Dr The Honourable Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister, St Vincent and the Grenadines, will discuss The Importance of History to Regional Integration and Development in his Opening Keynote Address, and remarks will be delivered on behalf of Dr Carla Barnett, Secretary General, CARICOM Secretariat, CARICOM Secretariat, on CXC’s Role in the Broader Development Framework for the Region. Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Chairman of CXC® and Dr Wayne Wesley, Registrar and CEO, CXC® are both slated to address the Summit on behalf of CXC®, while Professor Paloma Mohamed Martin, Vice Chancellor XI, the University of Guyana will act as Master of Ceremonies for the Opening Ceremony.
Professor Alan Cobley of The University of the West Indies and Chair of CXC’s History Taskforce will deliver a special presentation on the topic of The philosophy, intent and structure of the proposed History Syllabuses. Regional Ministers of Education and Ministry officials will share their perspectives and national experiences during the three Roundtable discussions scheduled for the Ministerial Summit. In the first Roundtable discussion, High Commissioner His Excellency Dr Lovell Francis, Trinidad and Tobago High Commissioner to South Africa and The Honourable Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education, Culture, Science and Technology, Belize, will explore the question of What are the implications of making History compulsory in secondary schools?
Mrs Mercedes Mateo-Berganza, Division Chief, Education Division, IADB will deliver a special presentation on Learning Losses and Skills for the Future.
In Roundtable 2, the Honourable Fayval Williams, Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Jamaica, His Excellency Dr Didacus Jules, Director General of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), and Dr The Honourable Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, Minister of Education, Trinidad and Tobago will share their views on the topic: What have we learned about our education systems during the COVID-19 pandemic? What have been our responses nationally and why?
The third Roundtable asks the question: What can CXC® do to enhance curriculum delivery and assessment practices in the region’s education systems during and after the COVID-19 pandemic and how will this impact CXC’s strategy? This topic will be addressed by The Honourable Santia Bradshaw, Minister of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, Barbados, Dr The Honourable Priya D. Manickchand, Minister of Education, Guyana, The Honourable Dee-Ann Kentish-Rogers, Minister of Education and Social Development, Anguilla and The Honourable Rachel Marshall Taylor, Minister of Education, Labour, Employment and Customer Services, Turks and Caicos Islands.
These discussions around critical education transformation issues which affect the region’s education system, will play a critical role in the development of CXC® and the region.