CXC to end SBAs for five subjects

The Caribbean Ex­am­i­na­tions Coun­cil (CXC) is re­form­ing its School-Based As­sess­ment (SBA) frame­work, with changes set to af­fect stu­dents sit­ting Caribbean Sec­ondary Ed­u­ca­tion Cer­tifi­cate (CSEC) and Caribbean Ad­vanced Pro­fi­cien­cy Ex­am­i­na­tion (CAPE) sub­jects from the 2027 aca­d­e­m­ic year.

The re­forms are be­ing in­tro­duced in re­sponse to the rapid growth of Gen­er­a­tive Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence (AI) and con­cerns about main­tain­ing the in­tegri­ty and au­then­tic­i­ty of stu­dent as­sess­ments.

Un­der the new frame­work, SBAs will con­tin­ue for sub­jects that re­ly heav­i­ly on prac­ti­cal skills and project-based learn­ing, in­clud­ing Agri­cul­tur­al Sci­ence, Vi­su­al Arts, Mu­sic, Phys­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion, Tech­ni­cal Draw­ing and Food, Nu­tri­tion and Health.

How­ev­er, for non-prac­ti­cal sub­jects such as Math­e­mat­ics, Eng­lish, Caribbean His­to­ry, So­cial Stud­ies and Prin­ci­ples of Busi­ness, the tra­di­tion­al SBA mod­el will be phased out.

Stu­dents in those sub­jects will in­stead com­plete Pa­per 032, an ex­ist­ing al­ter­na­tive as­sess­ment, un­der ex­am­i­na­tion con­di­tions with ad­just­ments de­signed to main­tain el­e­ments of re­search, re­flec­tion and ex­tend­ed learn­ing.

Un­der the re­vised process, stu­dents will re­ceive ex­am­i­na­tion top­ics ap­prox­i­mate­ly one month be­fore the as­sess­ment date, be giv­en ad­di­tion­al time to com­plete the work and will be al­lowed to bring ref­er­ence notes in­to the ex­am­i­na­tion room.

CXC Reg­is­trar and Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer Dr Wayne Wes­ley said the changes are not aimed at re­ject­ing the use of AI in ed­u­ca­tion, but are in­tend­ed to pro­tect the cred­i­bil­i­ty of re­gion­al qual­i­fi­ca­tions as schools and stu­dents adapt to new tech­nolo­gies.

Wes­ley said the SBA sys­tem has served Caribbean stu­dents for al­most 50 years but ac­knowl­edged that ad­just­ments are nec­es­sary to en­sure as­sess­ments con­tin­ue to ac­cu­rate­ly mea­sure stu­dents’ knowl­edge and abil­i­ties.

“The in­tegri­ty of our qual­i­fi­ca­tions is not ne­go­tiable,” Wes­ley said. “When the sys­tem that was de­signed to as­sess a stu­dent’s work can no longer re­li­ably do so, we have an oblig­a­tion to act, and to act de­ci­sive­ly.”

The changes fol­low con­sul­ta­tions with stake­hold­ers across 21 Caribbean states and ter­ri­to­ries.

CXC Di­rec­tor of Op­er­a­tions Dr Nicole Man­ning said the re­vised ap­proach is in­tend­ed to pre­serve the pur­pose of ex­tend­ed as­sess­ments while restor­ing con­fi­dence that sub­mit­ted work re­flects the stu­dent’s own abil­i­ties.

“A CXC qual­i­fi­ca­tion means some­thing. It means some­thing to em­ploy­ers, to uni­ver­si­ties, to par­ents, fam­i­lies and guardians who have in­vest­ed years of com­mit­ment and sac­ri­fice in­to a child’s ed­u­ca­tion,” Man­ning said.

She urged stu­dents, par­ents and teach­ers to main­tain the stan­dards as­so­ci­at­ed with CXC qual­i­fi­ca­tions, which she said must con­tin­ue to rep­re­sent what learn­ers know and can do.

The tran­si­tion will take place in phas­es. CAPE can­di­dates in non-prac­ti­cal sub­jects will move to Pa­per 032 be­gin­ning in May-June 2027.

For CSEC can­di­dates, schools will have the op­tion in 2027 to choose be­tween the ex­ist­ing SBA and Pa­per 032. How­ev­er, a full tran­si­tion to Pa­per 032 for non-prac­ti­cal sub­jects will take ef­fect from May-June 2028.

CXC said ex­ist­ing SBA scores will re­main trans­fer­able un­der the es­tab­lished two-year rule. From 2027, Pa­per 032 scores will al­so be trans­fer­able un­der the same arrange­ment.

The re­gion­al ex­am­i­na­tions body said the re­forms are aimed at en­sur­ing CXC qual­i­fi­ca­tions con­tin­ue to main­tain the con­fi­dence of stu­dents, fam­i­lies, ed­u­ca­tors, uni­ver­si­ties and em­ploy­ers across the Caribbean.