The Ministry of Education is maintaining that it is “deeply concerned” over apparent anomalies in the grading system utilized by the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) this year.

It is a concern spread across several countries within the region, as thousands of students have vocalized discrepancies with the results script. 

In some instances, students have reported that they received grade A’s across their portfolios in a subject, however the final grade reflects otherwise.

In a statement on Saturday morning, the Ministry of Education confirmed that it wrote a formal letter to CXC yesterday (September 25), relaying the complaints made by students. 

It revealed that on that same day, Education Minister, Dr. Nyan Gadsby-Dolly participated in a Minister’s meeting called by CXC, which included at least least six Regional Ministers of Education. 

The issues surrounding the consternation of students and education stakeholders on receipt of preliminary results were raised.  

The Ministry said assurances were given by CXC that matters advanced by Ministers for further investigation at the school-level would be dealt with expeditiously.

As such, the Ministry says its next step will be compiling all such matters as sent through the principals to the Local Registrar, which will then be transmitted to CXC.

The official communication which will be sent to highlight school-level concerns will also request from CXC specific information regarding the SBA moderation process, and results of same, and the methodology used to calculate the final grades of students. These two critical matters require much more elucidation; as they form the basis for much of the speculation now circulating in the region about the integrity of the results.  

This second official communication with CXC, requesting the information as mentioned above will be sent within the next 7 days; principals are therefore urged to submit their concerns in writing to the Local Registrar to allow for appropriate representation to be made at the level of CXC. 

On Friday, at press briefing with journalists across the region, Head of CXC, Dr. Wayne Wesley came under heavy condemnation for the examination body’s handling of the concerns. 

Still, Dr. Wesley calmly refuted claims that CXC had “gotten it wrong”, insisting that the complaints were made by a minority group of students. 

He chose instead, to focus on the fact that more than 90% of students received passing grades- something he believes students should be satisfied with.