Students should know their Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC) School-Based Assessment (SBA) grades before writing the examinations, says Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand. She made this assertion on Friday during the announcement of this year’s top performers at CSEC and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE).
She said that students should be aware of their grades in order to gauge their performance and readiness before the exams. But the minister said that students are being kept in the dark. “We are still hearing complaints and I’m putting this on the table now for all high schools that students are not seeing their SBA grades before they are submitted. So, you don’t even know what you go into the exams with, that is not something we can’t tolerate, it’s not something we are not willing to tolerate.”
She also called out teachers for “lording over” the SBA grades.
Minister Manickchand added, “So, all the headteachers I hope you’re paying attention to what I am saying, your students need to see and have their grade before they go in…so this thing where teachers are lording over the SBA’s is not going to be allowed at all.”
SBA accounts for a percentage of the marks acquired by students during the CSEC examinations. They are usually done in the school term leading up to the examination.
