The Caribbean Examinations Council has launched a new modular qualification framework after a pilot in mathematics recorded acceptable grades for 88 per cent of participating candidates, CXC Registrar and CEO Dr Wayne Wesley announced.
“With the achievement of the highly successful CTEC pilot in mathematics in the May/June examinations and with the approval of our board of governors, CXC is pleased to officially launch the Caribbean Targeted Education Certificate,” he said during a ceremony held in Anguilla for the release of the May/June Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) results.
The launch follows a successful pilot programme in mathematics, a subject in which historically only about one in three of candidates across the region have achieved passing grades in a single sitting.
Under the new CTEC framework, traditional syllabuses are broken down into focused, individual modules. Students are assessed and certified step by step, earning portable credentials that accumulate towards a full qualification.
Dr Wesley declared: “CTEC takes the same syllabus and the same rigorous standard and breaks them down into focused modules that students can master and be assessed on step by step. Under its guiding framework, every module completed is a credential earned that is banked, portable, and builds towards the full qualification. If life interrupts a learner’s journey, as life sometimes does, they no longer live with empty hands.”
Traditional all-or-nothing assessment methods often left thousands of students without recognition for the knowledge they had acquired over years of schooling, he added.
“For years in mathematics, only about one-third of our candidates have achieved acceptable grades in a typical sitting.
“Behind that statistic are hundreds of thousands of young people who sat in our classrooms for five years and walked away with nothing in hand to show for what they did learn, not because they learned nothing, but because our instrument of assessment was an all-or-nothing event. CXC holds to the position that competence is competence, no matter how long it takes to achieve and no matter the route by which it comes.”
The initial pilot of CTEC mathematics Module 1 involved 2 535 candidates across 15 Caribbean territories and 42 examination centres, including Barbados, Jamaica, Belize, the Cayman Islands and Anguilla. Of those who sat the specific module examination, 88 per cent achieved acceptable grades, with only one candidate across the entire region receiving the lowest grade tier.
“Measured against a generation in which barely one in three candidates succeed in a typical sitting, this achievement represents a remarkable turnaround,” Dr Wesley said. “When learning is assessed in focused, achievable stages, our students do more than cope. They excel, engage, persist, and succeed.”
In addition to the standalone pilot candidates, CXC evaluated the performance of students who took the standard CSEC mathematics examination, as the competencies assessed in CTEC Module 1 are embedded within the broader syllabus.
As a result of this mapping, approximately 35 000 candidates from the standard sitting will automatically receive the CTEC mathematics Module 1 credential. In total, nearly 70 000 students across the Caribbean have now earned their Module 1 certification through the dual evaluation approach.
“These are over 41 000 students whose motivation has been ignited by hope and who are encouraged to progress to the next level—students we would not have recognised otherwise,” the CXC registrar said. “An assessment model built in the 20th century cannot be expected to adequately serve a 21st-century generation. CTEC is an assessment redesigned for learners without lowering by a single degree the standard to which we hold.”
Addressing educators and policymakers, Dr Wesley urged regional governments to integrate the modular framework into national education strategies, technical and vocational training, and second-chance learning initiatives.
“To the policymakers across the region, CTEC is yours to embed in your national workforce planning and second-chance programmes. Every module certified represents real human capital made visible to employers and your respective economies,” he added. “To our students, what you know counts. Your learning has been seen, measured, and certified. You are not at the end of the road; you are on your way up the staircase.”
CTEC’s official emblem was unveiled alongside Anguilla Minister of Social Development and Education Shellya Rogers-Webster, marking the integration of the modular system into CXC’s permanent qualifications portfolio.
Candidates accessing the CXC student portal will see their new CTEC credentials reflected alongside their traditional examination results.
(RR)
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