CEO of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), Dr Wayne Wesley. (Photo courtesy CXC)
By Robert Andre Emmanuel
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), Dr Wayne Wesley said that the regional body has been looking into ways to reduce security breaches experienced over the years with its CSEC and CAPE subjects as he gears up for the multi-day conference in Antigua on artificial intelligence.
Speaking on Observer AM, Dr Wesley said that there are a number of issues concerning the regional examination council, chief among them the length of time it takes students across the region to submit their School Based Assessments (SBAs) and the number of examination leaks in the lead-up to the CXC exams.
“Coming out of 2020, that would have been a very serious concern because it was then that we started asking for all SBAs to be submitted … but what we are finding is that in some schools, what they have implemented is that SBAs are done in addition to the regular school coursework and that tends to be a burden … and that is perhaps why the SBAs are pushed to just before the exams,” Dr Wesley said.
He noted that the council is looking at how best to address the breaches, which has been a concern for many educators across the region, especially as many exam papers have been scrapped due to this, or caused widespread disruption in student preparation for their exams.
Last year, a mathematics Paper II was leaked to students in Jamaica, and affected students in other islands, including Antigua and Barbuda.
In a statement following their investigation, CXC acknowledged that students would have spent months preparing for the paper and “the news of the security breach [leak] of the examination has caused much anxiety and concern.
“We have come up with a hybrid system to do that, but it is going to be dependent on the readiness of the country to take on some of these technologies, where students are now able to view the exams on screen but write their responses in a booklet.
“Exams on screen would give more security to the paper as we would only release the paper on the morning of the exam; the current situation is that once the examination leaves CXC, and goes into the school system, it has to be locked into these specially designed and fire-proof cabinets but sometimes where these breaches occur is through that process,” he said.
The CXC CEO, who is currently in Antigua and Barbuda attending the University of the West Indies Five Islands (UWI FI) AI conference, spoke about how artificial intelligence will affect the education system in the region.
Dr Wesley explained that increasing students’ skills in mathematics and literacy will be crucial for the region to fully capitalise on the economic benefits of AI.
“An area of concern is that if people of the region will be benefiting from AI, our level of numeracy and literacy must be high; you cannot interact with without, first and foremost, the ability of our students to read, write and do arithmetic,” he argued.
During a recent press conference called by the Caribbean Examination Council, officials from the regional body said that it was planning to add artificial intelligence literacy to its list of CXC subjects, highlighting the growing importance of the industry in the world today.
Dr Wesley said teachers should incorporate AI into their lesson plans to enhance the learning experience of students.
“It’s no longer the excuse that you don’t have the information, teachers can now use this to augment the information they’re providing in class.
“For some students, they would never had understood what the solar system is right now but you can go into an AI system and you get a full simulation of the solar system and begin to have a greater appreciation for that and so it will enhance knowledge and teachers will have to utilize their skills [to ensure] creative, collaborative and creative thinking will be inculcated in our students to become the next generators of AI content and systems,” Dr Wesley explained.
