Some local high school principals are adamant that students should be allowed to sit their secondary level exit exams in July, as determined by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), or risk adverse impact on matriculation to tertiary institutions, particularly those overseas.
Their position runs counter to that of Jamaica Teachers' Association President Owen Speid, who has castigated CXC for deciding that students across the region should sit exit exams in July, despite the danger of COVID-19.
“Schools closed three weeks earlier than usual and I don't think three weeks would be a good reason to postpone CSEC, because a lot of schools complete their syllabus before March anyway, and then we would have had four additional months to complete the syllabi before the July exam,” he stated.
Molloy said, while students are ready, she was “sure there are those amongst us who would prefer to have their students come back for some type of face-to-face review [before the sittings], so I can see students benefiting [from that] even at the traditional high schools, as a kind of top-up, going into the exams”.
Students are asking if they can't come back to school to interact with their teachers, because they are just not ready to do the exams in July,” he said.
