CXC must think before it acts

THERE ARE SOMEwho will say that it’s water under the bridge, but I am of the opinion that the Caribbean Examinations Council’s (CXC) decision to throw out the Math Paper II exam is still relevant, especially to the thousands of students/young people who were directly affected by this decision.

I have been out of the system for some time now but I recall vividly the extra effort that our students put in just to pass Mathematics. With Mathematics now being compulsory, I can only imagine how this effort has multiplied and how much more stress we put our students under.

Now, we have a situation where our students will ask: Was it worth all this stress? Was it worth it staying awake all night working over the Paper II? Was it worth all the money spent on extra lessons just so that I could keep up?

All of that and now the paper is worthless. There has got to be something wrong when

What we do today…..

HAS ANYBODYelse noticed that while we have broadened our diplomatic relations with nations of all political systems and religions, that we have also increased our indebtedness?

It seems every time we establish new diplomatic relations with a country better off than ourselves, we are quick to enter into some loan agreement with them, e.g., the Arab countries. Just recently we signed a new agreement with the Saudis and for ‘developments’ that will not contribute directly to economic growth or development.

Now, I have nothing against that per se, since we have to attend to our holistic development — development of our infrastructure, our people and our economic sector. What I have a problem with is that even though those loans might be soft loans with low interest rates and they will not mature for some time to come, we will still have to repay them and with the interest. And we must remember that a number of ‘big’ loans with multilateral lending agencies will become due down the line.

Now there are those who will say that since we don’t have the capacity to fund all of our needs that we need to look for grant and loan assistance. Can’t quarrel with that.

However, my concern, and I hope it would be the concern of others, is that we have to be careful that in order to take care of the present, that we don’t burden future generations with having to repay many large loans that the economy into the future might not be able to afford. I hope this gloomy forecast does not come to past but whatever the case, we have to be careful about what we do today and how it is going to affect the future generations of Vincentians who remain to build and sustain their homeland.

Thomas

ÂWe Livin in jailÊ

Last week’s editorial immediately led me to remembering a calypso by Trinidadian calypsonian Sedley “Mighty Penguin” Joseph, now deceased, who won the Calypso Monarch title in his country in 1984.

The name of the calypso is ‘We Livin in Jail’ in which he captured the prevailing crime situation at the time in his country, and clearly pointed out that it was the poor who were suffering in the long run.

Here is a little of what ‘Penguin’ had to say:

“Everywhere I look

Criminals and crook

Terrorise as they run amok

While poor you and me

Behind lock and key ... “ students have to depend on a 60-mark, multiplechoice exam, to determine their entire Math grade.

Nuff said.

This excludes the SBA mark for which some students ride on the backs of others, and get an overall high mark that was not of their own making. And teachers are aware of this practice.

It is not the first time a CXC exam paper has been leaked and I am certain it won’t be the last.

I recall that in 2008 when the Physics paper was leaked in Trinidad, CXC made Trinidad do over that exam with a different paper. This was not to disadvantage the thousands of students who also sat that test in the rest of the region.

Why couldn’t this have applied this year, after the Math Paper II was leaked in Jamaica?

Precedent had been set: If it was an option for Trinidad back in 2008, then it should have been an option for Jamaica in 2023.

The Caribbean Examination Council

(CXC) is the only examining council for the entire Caribbean, up to the secondary school level (including what we used to call the Advanced Level which is now CAPE).

In the circumstances under review, this is more than enough reason for CXC to have given more reasoned consideration before they acted, so as not to cause undue emotional and mental fallout on our students.

CXC must avoid taking on-the-spot decisions which are in essence, detrimental to students across the region.

Retiree