PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – The Barbados-based Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has launched a new Data Intelligence Gateway online platform that it says will allow it to serve its regional stakeholders more efficiently.
Caribbean Examinations Council building. (via CARICOM)“No institution can prosper at this moment in our history without deep engagement in the digital culture, especially institutions in the area of knowledge creation and management and reproduction, especially institutions like the CXC,” said CXC chairman and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles.
“Therefore, when we developed the CXC’s strategic development plan in 2020, it was clear to us that digital transformation would have to play a critical part in the immediate future of the institution. We recognized this in the conversations around this strategic plan and we insisted upon the development of a central role in the role of digital applications, management, and sustainability of the institution’s operations. We could not enact resilience building and sustainability without the full embrace of the digital culture.”
He told the ceremony that optimizing stakeholder engagement and empowering the Ministries of Education and other stakeholders across the region with the capacity and capability to make informed decisions at the level of policy, strategic management and tactical interventions for performance improvement of the regional education system, was critical.
“This product, this tool, this is the solution that CXC’s management has brought to the fore of this day,” Sir Hilary added.
The CXC said that the new gateway is a central website that will provide dashboards of various categories of information. It will allow Ministries of Education across the region and examination centres to access necessary information such as statistics on electronic school-based assessments (e-SBAs), registrations, and results.
CXC registrar and chief executive officer, Dr Wayne Wesley, said the regional examinations body is undergoing digital transformation aimed at providing improved and more efficient services.
“Digital transformation is more than a catchphrase for us at CXC, it is our vision. As this year marks our 50th anniversary of serving the region, CXC’s vision is to become a digitally transformed enterprise providing quality, relevant, and globally recognized educational services.
“Accordingly, CXC is transforming for greater regional impact and we are doing this through our e-transition framework,” he said.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Education Minister Dr. Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, told the launch that many aspects of life had changed and digital technology is at the center of these changes.
“The changes to how we teach, we learn, communicate, bank even how we are entertained are viewed widely as irrevocable. We are not the same people after the COVID experience, not the same societies and this is simply not the same world”.
The Education Minister said that the new generation demands a different lifestyle and it is left to the policy makers, administrators and educators of today to prepare young people for the jobs that in some instances do not yet exist.
She said that the remnants of the baby boomers and generation “X” have tried in vain to resist this wave of change “but the time left for holding on the old ways is gone.
“This initiative of the CXC provides a lead in the region and we must support and follow,” she said, adding that policies and systems that served the region prior to the COVID-19 pandemic must change in keeping with the changing global environment.
