BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC—The Barbados-based Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) says it is repositioning itself to become more responsive to the region’s needs as thousands of students begin writing examinations on Tuesday.
“This repositioning strategy aimed to enhance our regional impact and global influence, ensuring the provision of relevant, high-quality educational services.
“Ladies and gentlemen, much is expected of CXC, and we will not shrink back from what we have to do; instead, we will move courageously and boldly in shaping and transforming education within the region,” said Dr. Wayne Wesley, CXC’s Registrar and chief executive officer.
He told a news conference, “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, engage, and work with all our stakeholders, parents, students, governments, policymakers, teachers, educators, and 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 region’s needs and assists in Common Entrance and other 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 over 600,000 subject 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 to administer the examinations successfully,” Wesley told reporters.
He said CXC is repositioning, marking “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 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, enhancing accountability, relevant expertise, and prudent oversight to ensure adherence to policy mandate.
He said the CXC’s organizational redesign is intended to make the examination body “fit for purpose” and that “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 repositioning is reimagining assessment and certification.
“This calls for the recalibration and refocus of the Council’s assessment and certification system, embracing flexible and progressive learning and competency base e3ducation in alignment with economic and social transformation.”
He said the CXC qualifications would also be redesigned to achieve an optimal balance between content coverage and skill acquisition to meet the various approaches to current and future employment skills demands and syllabus modernization.
“This is a new development in CXC as we seek to become more flexible and responsive to the needs of the region, and so a new qualification has been developed…and within this construct, the learner is at the focus of what we are treating with.
“In that regard, we recognize 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 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 recognizing the learner’s three competencies will lead to a new CXC qualification that will be at the same standard as CSEC and CAPE, utilize the same syllabus, focus on related and relevant learning outcomes, and provide for progressive competency achievements.
He said the Caribbean Targeted 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 defined module subjects…” with the macro-credentials given to those students successfully achieving a prescribed set of subjects and/or modules.
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