And while the grocery bag program may still be waiting on that green light from Belmopan, the CSEC exams will go on.
This is a major concern to parents, teachers and students as they have had difficulties navigating the world of distance learning. On top of that, these exams are not free, and with COVID putting parents in a financial crunch, it is not surprising that the BNTU lobbied for an extension of the due date.
This is only one of the concerns that were brought up during a meeting between the union and the Ministry of Education yesterday. President Elena Smith told us via ZOOM how it went down.
Elena Smith, President - BNTU
"When the calendar was sent out it had PSE and those CXC exams as tentative because we have shared with them that we did not believe that our students would have been prepared to sit these exams this year, especially seeing that these children in 4th form now are children who last year in 3rd form they were out from March, so even though you were having virtual classes from March until June for some, a lot of the students were really not signing up for classes and not doing the work, not sending in their work - that sort of thing. So these children would have been far more behind than the ones who took it last year, because those who took it last year by March they would have been almost been prepared or been ready for the exams in May. However, these ones now have missed out quite a bit of 3rd form and now a bit of 4th form. So, we thought that seeing that and having heard that the ministry then would have made that decision that we would not have taken it. So, when we saw the memo we were a bit taken a back by the decision. We weren't consulted before that, we knew nothing that a decision was made until the memo was sent. Actually it wasn't sent to us as one of the stakeholders and so I wrote to the minister immediately and shared concerns that we had and I got an immediate response to say that he would have contacted the CEO for them to contact me to have a discussion and so we had that meeting yesterday where we shared with the CEO our concerns regarding the timeframe for parents to pay because we know that right now parents are really and truly struggling and they would not be able to find monies to pay for CXC in such short notice, one. Two, student and their readiness for this exam as well as the concerns regarding the SBAs and how they will get those finished in time, the workload of the teachers, how the teachers would be able to upload all that information in such a short time, what kind of assistance would be given to these teachers to ensure that they are able to upload all of these things, what the exam would entail whether it's going to be paper 1 only, paper 2 only - so all of those discussions we had and the BAPS as well met with us and so they too shared concerns of principals. Coming out of that meeting yesterday it was agreed that there was a need for an extension of the time for parents to pay. So that matter is under discussion where we would further discussing to see what would then be the agreed timeframe that we can use date that we can give as for that extension for payment."
MOE has also announced that it will only be paying for three CSEC exams rather than the usual six. Smith said that while they were unable to discuss the reasoning behind this, she is hoping that it may be due to students taking fewer exams this time around.
