BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The Barbados-based Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) says it is repositioning its self to become more responsive to the needs of the region as thousands of students Tuesday begin writing examinations.
CXC’s Registrar and chief executive officer, Dr Wayne Wesley, speaking at news conference on Tuesday (CMC Photo)“This repositioning strategy aimed to enhance our regional impact and global influence, ensuring the provision of relevant and high quality educational services.
“Ladies and gentlemen, much is expected of CXC and we will not shrink back into what we have to do, but instead we will move courageously and boldly in shaping and transforming education within the region,” said the CXC’s Registrar and chief executive officer, Dr Wayne Wesley.
He told a news conference that un order to be successful “ we know we will have to listen more to our stakeholders.
“This is a defining posture of the new CXC. We will listen, we will engage and work with all our stakeholders, our parents, our students, our governments, policy makers, teachers, educators and all our regional and international partners for greater regional impact”.
The announcement of the new initiative coincides with the official start of the traditional May-June examinations, set up by CXC, which was established in 1972 under agreement by the participating governments in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
It provides regional and internationally recognized secondary school leaving examinations relevant to the needs of the region; assist in Common Entrance and other types of examinations. The CXC has a comprehensive suite of qualifications namely CSEC, Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence (CCSLC), Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ), Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) and the CXC Associate Degree (CXC-AD).
“We are pleased to announce that for this 2025 examination period over 100, 000 candidates from across the region have been registered to sit more than 600,000 subjects entries. This will be another mammoth undertaking by CXC, but we are equal to the task, the team has worked hard to ensure everything is in place for the successful administration of the examinations,” Wesley told reporters.
He said CXC is repositioning and it marks “the beginning of our transformation effort…and this is the beginning of the end of the Caribbean Examinations Council as you know it as we transform for greater regional impact”.
He said that as the unique certifying body for secondary education within CARICOM, CXC is seized with the imperative to engage its own organizational renewal to provide the required leadership and support for education transformation in the region.
He said since December 2023, CXC has been engaged in a comprehensive strategic repositioning exercise in “what is the beginning of the end of the old CXC.
“This comprehensive strategic repositioning is about transforming for greater relevance and sustainability,” he said, adding that it encompasses three main elements, including the modernization of the governance system involving a review of CXC’s articles of agreement to include expanded stakeholder representation, enhance accountability, relevant expertise and prudent oversight to ensure adherence to policy mandate.
He said he organizational redesign of the CXC is intended to make the examinations body “fit for purpose” and “what this means is CXC transforming for greater relevance sustainability to achieve organizational agility‘…responding quickly and effectively to unpredictable events”.
He said the third element of the repositioning is that of reimagining assessment and certification.
“This calls for the recalibration and refocus of the Council’s system of assessment and certification, embracing flexible and progressive learning and competency base education in alignment with economic and social transformation.”
He said there will also be a redesigning of the CXC qualifications to achieve optimal balance between content coverage and the acquisition of skills to the various approaches of current and future employment skills demands as well as the modernization of syllabuses.
“This is a new development in CXC as we seek to become more flexible and responsive to the needs of the regional and so a new qualification has been developed…and within this construct the leaner is at the focus of what we are treating with.
“In that regard we have recognized that there are multiple options. You have advanced gifted students, who can take the accelerated track and those who can do so through a compressed program.
“We also recognize there are the typical students who will take the general track, completing the program in a specified period of time as in most of our syllabuses, two years, and then you will have the individualized individual who will need a flexible track and extended program time to treat with and absorb the content”
He said in recognizing the three competent of the learner, it will lead to a new qualification by CXC that will be at the same standard of CSEC and CAPE, utilizing the same syllabus, focusing on related and relevant learning outcomes and provides for progressive achievements of competencies.
He said the Caribbean Targetted Education Certificate (CTEC), which will be non terminal will be “our micro credential and will be awarded to students who successfully achieve a module.
“Then this will lead into our intermediate credentials…which will be awarded to those who achieve a define module subjects…” with the macro-credentials being given to those students successfully achieving a prescribed set of subjects and or modules.
