CXC Agrees to Accept SBAs of Penwood High Students

The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has decided to accept the outstanding School-based Assessment (SBA) samples of students of Penwood High School in St. Andrew.

This was disclosed by Minister of Education,  Youth and Information,  Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, during a back-to-school press conference at the Ministry’s Heroes Circle offices in Kingston on August 31.

Approximately 40 students of the school received ‘ungraded’ scores for six subjects sat in this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams, due to the failure to submit samples of their SBAs by the July 31 deadline.

The Ministry lobbied the CXC to change the decision and Senator Reid said the move to accept the outstanding SBAs is part of the appeal process.

“We have done a lot of work behind the scenes, which led to engagements at the highest level with CXC, and I am pleased to advise that they have now changed their position and have allowed the appeal. They have asked for certain procedures to be followed, which we are working with the institution to comply with,” he pointed out.

He said that once the SBAs have been submitted, “we expect the review to be completed by next week and the final decision, which we expect to be positive, will occur shortly thereafter”.

“So, we are simply expecting that based on our advocacy and the support of all the stakeholders, we will see CXC reviewing and accepting the appeal in a favourable light and the students will get their grades in short order,” he noted.

In the meantime, Senator Reid said the Ministry has been in contact with the parents and students who have been affected.

He said that the students are in the process of applying for sixth form or employment and “we are…negotiating with the relevant schools to see how we can have them placed in the interim”.

Senator Reid commended the team led by Chief Education Officer, Dr. Grace McLean, for the integral role being played in addressing the issue.

He indicated that the Ministry will not be conducting an enquiry into the matter.