Local CXC Registrar, Chandler Hyacinth, has announced that the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) will begin electronic testing in the May Caribbean Secondary Education Certification (CSEC) Exams in 2017.
Hyacinth broke this news at a press conference on Friday, August 19th.
The Local CXC Registrar revealed that electronic testing will begin with the multiple choice section of the exam papers.
“Countries have to be ready before it is introduced at the centres. Once the Ministry of Education is satisfied that we can proceed, we will proceed,” she said.
Hyacinth further revealed that the syllabus will be revised.
“In particular, mathematics to which an SBA component has been introduced come 2018 exams. An SBA component has been introduced to English Language and come 2017 exams, we will see that become a significant part.”
She believes that with the introduction of these School Based Assessments, Dominica will see a vast improvement in students’ performance.
Hyacinth is convinced that with the assistance of the Caribbean Examination Council more students will attain grade ones.
“All the syllabi for all subjects are available at the CXC store for free. So students can download the syllabus to prepare themselves adequately for exams. All past papers with reports on past exams are also available on the CC website. So our students, teachers and schools have to be proactive so students can excel.
“CXC has produced a number of revision guides which are available locally. There is another area on the website called Notes Master where students can sign in, set up an account and get notes from every subject area.”
She noted that there is already marked improvement in students’ performance since the introduction of this online resource.
Hyacinth also says there is an upward trend in the number of students getting grade ones in five or more subjects including Math and English.
Eight schools are above average and 12 reached an overall 75% pass rate, she says.
Dominica’s average pass rate of 81.7% is 17.7% higher than that of the Caribbean region this year.