CXC Exams to Be Held in May Despite Calls for Postponement

The Caribbean Examination Council (CXC ) is pressing ahead with exams, amid several calls from the Education Ministry to grant a postponement. The calls are subsequent to unfinished syllabi brought about by difficulties in online schooling. 

The Minister is therefore seeking additional time for students to prepare for the exams which mark the end of standard secondary education. The council says the exam schedule was finalized in December last year, three months before face-to-face classes were resumed in Jamaica. 

Education Minister Fayval Williams is therefore fighting that decision, as she says many students have indicated they do not feel ready for the exams. She says the Ministry carried out a survey, which showed the majority of students requesting more time to prepare. 

Minister Williams says she has penned a letter to the CARICOM’s Council for Human and Social Development requesting an urgent meeting to present her case. She is assuring students and parents the government will do its best to advocate for a postponement of the exams. 

The Minister first requested a postponement of the exams in January and again in March, however, those calls were unfruitful. Subsequently, students should be sitting their CXC examinations in May and June.

Reporter: Velonique Bowen