GCE A levels, they represent the gold standard in higher learning. But, pretty soon, the A level, will go the way of the O level, which has been supplanted by the CXC exam. In Belize to usher in the new is CXC Registrar Lucy Steward. She's here to present what's called the CXC Associate Degree Programme which will become the standard by which all Belize's sixth form graduates are judged. Belize's Chief Education Officer Maud Hyde says that the CXC associate level; will make education more relevant in Belize and across the region.
Maud Hyde, Chief Education Officer
"For us it sort of a natural progression. We are moving from working with the CXC secondary level examination to endorsing the end of tertiary, that is at the junior college level, the CAPE associate degree and of course the CAPE units of the Caribbean Examination Council."
Alfonso Noble,
So will you all be doing away with the CXCs at fourth form?
Maud Hyde,
"No certainly not. This is an addition, this is like the icing on the cake for CXC. Of course we will continue with the C-Sect level examination for secondary. The CAPE examinations address the junior college level. In fact where we used to have A levels, we will now have CAPE. We will retain the A level syllabus, the Cambridge syllabus for A levels for the next two years and then it will be a gradual transition to adopting CAPE."
Lucy Steward, CXC Registrar
"Since 1998, CXC has been administering the CAPE and now what CXC is doing is clustering those subjects for the CAPE, as its known, to award an associates degree."
Alfonso Noble,
The need for it?
Lucy Steward,
"The need is obvious across the region because more and more students are going into tertiary institutions that are recognizing an associat4es degree rather than individual certificates. So this is one way CXC has been responding to that need by looking at the subjects we have for CAPE and clustering them to award an associates degree."
The CXC associate level will be adopted in Belize in two years.
