The CXC Examiner - Celebrating 30 years of CSEC

The Caribbean Examiner
www.cxc.org MAY 2009 3
IN THIS ISSUE
THE CARIBBEAN EXAMINER is a publication of the CARIBBEAN EXAMINATIONS COUNCIL (CXC)
Editor-in-Chief: Dr Didacus Jules • EDITOR: CLEVELAND SAM • LINE EDITOR: MAUREEN GRAZETTE
Please send your comments to: THE CARIBBEAN EXAMINER, CXC, THE GARRISON, ST. MICHAEL, BARBADOS
E-mail: cxcezo@cxc.org • YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFDDmH7oHzg
CSEC 30TH ANNIVERSARY: 1979 – 2009
05 Celebrating 30 Years of CSEC
THE 1979 EXPERIENCE
08 The Registrar’s Perspective
14 The Class Of 1979
16 30 Years of CSEC Mathematics
CSEC CLASS OF 1979
18 Where are they Now?
CXC NEWS
26 Selecting English B Texts
For 2012 – 2017
27 CXC Joins JAMCOPY
28 Visual Arts Exhibition
29 CSEC January 2009
30 CAPE Qualification
34 Made for Mathematics
36 Knowledge Cruise
P16
P41
P30
P38
Jordanna
Deane
P08
P36
CXC NEWS
38 Top CAPE Students
40 CSEC Top Awards
41 Teach a Computer to Learn
42 In Their Own Words
44 Yana-Marisa Edwards
45 e-Learning Jamaica
46 Progress Towards
a New Vision
53 “Air CXC”

CSEC 30TH ANNIVERSARY: 1979 – 2009
Celebrating30Yearsof
CSECExaminations:1979-2009
By Cleveland Sam
The year 1979 was a turbulent one for the
Caribbean region in general and the world in
particular.It was the year Maurice Bishop carried
out a blood-less coup in Grenada; there was the
Union Island uprising and the eruption of the La
Soufriere Volcano in St Vincent and the Soviet
Union invaded Afghanistan.
But 1979 is perhaps one of the most
significant years in the history of regional
education development. It was during May/June
1979 that for the first time Caribbean secondary
school students wrote an examination prepared
by Caribbean people, for Caribbean people and
marked and graded by Caribbean people!
Thirty thousand,two hundred and seventy-
six (30 276) candidates from the region were part
of this historic occasion as they wrote the first
sitting of the Caribbean Secondary Education
Certificate, CSEC, commonly called CXCs.
Though the operation experienced some
challenges,it signaled the entry of the Caribbean
Examinations Council (CXC) unto the global
examination landscape, and more importantly
the beginning of the region’s break from the UK
examination boards. It was a proud moment in
Caribbean history.
For this first sitting,the Council offered five
subjects for the CSEC; four at the General and
BasicProficienciesandoneatGeneralProficiency
only. The five subjects were English Language,
Geography,Caribbean History and Mathematics
at General and Basic, and Integrated Science as a
pilot at General only.Fifty-eight thousand,seven
hundred and eight (58708) subject entries were
received. The breakdown by subject was:
• English Basic................................ 14747
• English General........................... 12056
• Geography Basic............................ 4866
• Geography General....................... 5409
• History Basic................................... 942
• History General............................. 1571
• Mathematics Basic...................... 12844
• Mathematics General.................... 5822
• Integrated Science........................... 451
Thirteen of the then 14 Participating
Territories submitted entries for those
examinations. The registration process was
far from smooth. “A number of entries were
submitted long after the closing date for
registration,” wrote then CXC Registrar Wilfred
Beckles in his Report to Council. “The reasons
for the late entries were understandable, but the
dislocation in the schedules inevitably increased
pressure on the Registry to complete each phase
on time and affected the entire process.”
There was good news with respect to
the shipping and clearance of the scripts at
the various ports of entries. This was as a
result of discussions the Council held with
airlines, customs and airport authorities in the
Participating Territories.
Beckles reported, “CXC materials were
handled with expedition and the Registry was
able to ship materials to Local Registrars in
good time for the administration and to have
the scripts returned to Headquarters and the
Western Zone Office for the marking exercise to
begin on schedule…”
ThemarkingwasconductedinBarbadosand
Jamaica,the two territories in which the Council
has offices. English and Integrated Science were
markedinJamaicaandMathematics,Historyand
Geography were marked in Barbados.
Some three hundred and thirty-seven (337)
markers participated in the exercise. They were
selected from all the Participating Territories and
marked for a two-week period starting on July 16.
However, a lot of preparations went into getting
the process to that stage.
Members of CXC staff went on study
visits to examinations boards in Scotland and
England.
Then Assistant Registrar, later Senior
Assistant Registrar for Examinations
Administration, Baldwin Hercules, benefited
from such visits. “I was privileged to go to the
majorexaminationboardsintheUK,Cambridge,
LondonandtheJointMatriculationBoard(JMB)
in Manchester to observe the practises,” he said.
“In fact, that certainly helped me to perform
the duties in the Examination Division. We
CSEC Mathematics markers in the early years pose outside Short Wood Teachers’ College in Jamaica.
L to R: Leslie Clouden (Grenada/Barbados), Ronan Antoine (Trinidad and Tobago),
Terry Bodkin (Dominica), unidentified, Judith DeFour (Trinidad and Tobago),
Cynthia Anderson (Jamaica), and Clement Derrell (Guyana/Barbados)

6 MAY 2009 www.cxc.org
Celebrating30Yearsof CSEC
borrowed a lot of their best practices,” Hercules
pointed out.
Elma Licorish, one of the Council’s first
employees also recalled visiting examination
boards in Scotland and England, including
Cambridge. “Cambridge provided assistance to
ensure that the standard of the examinations
the Council was offering was maintained,” she
stated.
In addition to the study visits, training was
a significant aspect of the Council’s work prior
to the 1979 examinations.
“We had a lot of training courses in Guyana,
TrinidadandBarbados,”shesaid. “Peopleapplied
to be markers and we trained them.”Additionally,
consultants from overseas examination boards
visited CXC to train staff and resource persons.
“Those were very exciting times,” quipped
Mr Hercules. “We were determined to make it
happen because there were a lot of people on the
outside who doubted that we could do it and they
were very sceptical.”
Scepticism aside, the team at CXC pressed
and delivered the first examinations.
The marking exercise was not as smooth as
the examination administration.
“I remember we did the first marking at
Windsor Hotel (Barbados) and I was in charge
of Maths Basic,”Bernadine Parris recalled. “The
first morning we went there like pigeons without
heads,” Mrs Parris joked. It took them some
time before they figured out the routing of the
scripts and this caused a back up of scripts she
recalled.
“We were told to route these scripts to these
tables, you would know to yourself that you had
to get a finished folder or get the scripts marked
fast, so you had to design a pattern for routing,
and we got it done.”
Ms Licorish said they underestimated
the number of people needed to complete the
operation. “At first they had been marking at
Windsor Hotel and they had envisaged having
a couple people up there grading these mark
sheets but it didn’t work… “It was a Sunday
morning when we had to gather everybody who
could see and hold a pencil to come and set
up this operation and then they were shipped
to Examination Testing Service (ETS) in New
Jersey, USA.
For Ms Licorish,the ETS story is one she will
not forget! The Council had not yet established
an examination processing system and an
arrangement was made with ETS to process the
results for CXC. She was charged with going to
ETS and bringing back the results.When ETS was
finished the processing of the results Ms Licorish
had 29 boxes to contend with. “Twenty-nine
boxes of it!” she exclaimed.
“The plane had been delayed and I got a lot
of hassle from BWIA staff at JFK Airport about
why I was carrying so many boxes,”she said as she
recounted the experience. She explained to the
staff that the boxes contained CXC examination
results, but nobody knew of CXC at that time.
However, Ms Licorish and the boxes were
eventually allowed on the flight. But the greatest
drama with the results was yet to come.
“The way ETS had packed the results, they
were all jumbled up,” she stated with a sigh. “I
have vivid memories of people like Prunella King
(former staff member) sitting down on the floor
in the vault at 2:00 am trying to sort out these
things,” she continued.
The cause of the mix up? Think 1979, 30
years ago; there were no faxes, no e-mail and
certainly no Internet facilities,far less cell phones.
In those days cables were used to communicate
changes to ETS. As it turned out, the final set of
changes which CXC sent never reached ETS. “I
had to check every one of them manually,” Ms
Licorish said.
And if you thought no fax and e-mail
sound stone-age,there were no computers either,
only typewriters and Gestetiner machines. The
provisional certificates had to be typewritten and
that task also fell on Ms Licorish. With a good
laugh, she also remembered that the date was
left off the certificates and a rubber stamp was
used to put it on.
“It is amazing now to see that everything
is computerised,” remarked Mrs Parris. “You
can just press buttons and get things out, but
I remember the days when I use to do the
examiners’tickets with my hand.I use to write all
those names (markers) for tickets by hand.”
E-tickets were light years away.
“The students who took
those first examinations
in 1979 are the managers
of companies today,
your doctors, principals
of schools, Ministers of
Government, lecturers
at universities, lawyers,
leaders of nations and
are making their mark
not just in the region, but
around the world.”
Archaic technological aside, “we came
through; the results were late, but they came out
nevertheless,”Mr Hercules said.The results were
issued on September 15th
that year, one week
behind the scheduled date.These days results are
issued a month ahead of this 1979 date.
The students who took those first
examinations in 1979 are the managers of
companies today, your doctors, principals of
schools, Ministers of Government, lecturers at
universities, lawyers, leaders of nations and are
making their mark not just in the region, but
around the world.
Honouring the Class of‘79
To celebrate the milestone CXC will be
honouring the CXC Class of ’79 in July this
year during the marking exercise. The Class
of ’79 includes all the staff who worked at the
Council in 1979 to make the first examination
administration a success; the members of the five
Subject Panels; members of the five Examining
Committees; members of the Final Awards
Committee and markers who marked then and
are still marking in 2009.Two awards ceremonies
will be hosted; one in Barbados on July 10th
and
the other in Jamaica on July 15th
.
CXC will also be featuring the 30 in 30
years- a look at 30 persons from across the
region who, through their contribution to CXC
has significantly influenced the development of
CSEC in its 30-year history.These persons will be
profiled in CXC’s Caribbean Examiner magazine
and on www.cxc.org throughout the year.
Ministries of education will also be
publishing a newspaper supplement in June to
commemorate the historic milestone.
Moving Forward
Over the last 30 years,CSEC has seen major
improvements and increases in all aspects of the
examination.Candidate entries have grown from
just over 30,000 candidates in 1979 to almost
150,000 now; subjects entries increased from
58,000 in 1979 to over half a million today.
From offering only five subjects in 1979,
CXC now offers 33 CSEC subjects.
Critical to any examination board is the
acceptance of CSEC by universities in the
region and abroad. Caribbean students get into
universities with their CSEC qualifications and
many schools do not require them to take SAT
or any other entrance test,except for scholarship
or advanced placement purposes.
The Council’s new Strategic Visions calls
for the review of all its examinations and “ the
recognition of the utility of CXC examinations
in relation to knowledge and competence
certification as well as applicability to the world
of work.”

At two sittings of large scale examinations in 2008, the Caribbean Examinations Council offered a
totalof 102examinationsacrossthreelevels:CAPE,CSECandCCSLC.Theseexaminations
comprisedatotalof178writtenpapers(i.e.excludingmultiple-choice,practicalandoralpapers)
whichgenerated662,000subject-entriesandapproximately1,300,000
scripts.Thesescriptsweremanuallymarkedby4,800teachersfromthe16Participating
Territories:Anguilla;AntiguaandBarbuda;Barbados;Belize;BritishVirginIslands;CaymanIslands;
Commonwealth of Dominica; Grenada; Guyana; Jamaica; Montserrat; St Kitts and Nevis; St.Lucia;
St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Trinidad and Tobago; Turks and Caicos Islands; and two External
Territories,SabaandSt.Maarten.Approximately94%ofthe1,300,000scripts
from the two 2008 sittings were marked over a fiveweek period in June/July and necessitated
the transporting and accommodating of 2,100teachers to a total of eight marking centres
acrossfourterritories:Barbados,Jamaica,TrinidadandTobagoandGuyana.
Didyou knowC X C E xaminations S tatistics

1979 CSEC Experience
TheRegistrar’sPerspective
By Wilfred Beckles
I am grateful to CXC for the invitation to
join in celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the
Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate
(CSEC) and am happy to respond. In what
follows I have tried to be faithful to the remit
of recounting “the 1979 experience from the
Registrar’s perspective” including fact and
anecdote. I must thank the CXC Records and
Human Resources staff for material which helped
to confirm some of my recollections. Some
former colleagues, to whom I am also grateful,
gave me the benefit of their recollections and
allowed me to check mine against theirs.
The success of CXC’s first examinations was,
to many across the region, a welcome surprise.
To the staff of CXC, whom I had the privilege of
leading at the time, it was no surprise. Taken in
perspective 1979,was,after all,the culmination of
several years of activity under the policy-making
guidanceof theCXCCouncilanditsCommittees,
and the distinguished Chairmanship,firstly of Sir
Roy Marshall, Vice Chancellor of the University
of theWest Indies (UWI),and then of Dr Dennis
Irvine, Vice Chancellor of the University of
Guyana. Four of the five years since the start of
full operations in 1974 had been spent in active
preparation. The final year was therefore one of
reviewing progress, assessing deficiencies and
weaknesses and of putting in place what would
be necessary to clear the final hurdle.
CXC had recruited a core of competent
full-time staff under Major Rudolph Daniel, its
first Registrar based at Headquarters (HQ) in
Barbados, Mrs Irene Walter, Pro Registrar based
at the Western Zone Office (WZO) in Jamaica,
and for a few short months early in 1978, Mr
J Urqhart who served as interim Consultant
Registrar until I assumed duties in June, 1978
with Dr Irvine as Chairman.
THE 1979 EXPERIENCE
Mr Wilfred Beckles in earlier times

Soon after the start of operations,CXC took
two crucial steps by:
1) forging links with a number of well
established examining bodies in the United
Kingdom (UK), notably the Cambridge
University Local Examinations Syndicate, the
University of London Schools Examination
Board and the Joint Matriculation Board (JMB),
and with Educational Testing Services (ETS) of
Princeton, New Jersey in the United States of
America ( USA) to provide training for staff,
2) entering into partnership with funding
agencies such as the Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA) and the
Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation
(CFTC) to secure much needed developmental
assistance,and to obtain the services of a number
of consultants with technical expertise in
assessment, who would work along with CXC’s
less experienced staff.
CXC thereafter laid the groundwork
towards the first five subjects to be written in
1979. In a series of careful steps the Council
proceeded to:
1.) appoint Subject Panels which, after
extensive deliberation and interaction with a
School Examinations Committee, prepared
and issued syllabuses and specimen question
papers;
2.) appoint Examining Committees of
experienced academics and senior teachers who
were not involved in the school system to prepare
question papers and mark schemes;
3.) mount item-writing workshops for
teachers across the region to prepare draft items
(multiple choice) and essay questions which were
then pretested in the schools;
4.) train, with the help of Chief Examiners
from the Cambridge Syndicate,a sufficient cadre
of markers. That training involved marking
“live”GCE O’Level scripts written by Caribbean
students in the fifth form – CXC’s target age
group;
5.) secure the services of Caribbean and
British Moderators to vet its question papers
the Caribbean to ensure the relevance of the
questions to the region, the British to ensure
the quality of the examining processes and
comparability with similar examinations at age
16 plus; contract with ETS to supply services in
areas in which the Council was deficient until
it made its own arrangements – i.e., question
paper printing, statistical and data processing
services. These would be specific to the 1979
examinations while the Council prepared for its
own future capability.
Inmid-1977,theCouncilalsocommissioned,
from an experienced official of the Scottish
Certificate of Education Examination Board, an
external assessment of its work,of progress made
on the groundwork referred to above, and of the
steps remaining for its first examinations. The
report of that assessment expressed satisfaction
with the procedures established and progress
made. It concluded with cautious optimism
that with some additional work and attention
to certain areas, CXC could look forward
with a measure of confidence, to successful
examinations in 1979.
At my interview for the post of Registrar,
I had expressed concern that little was known
about CXC across the region. That concern was
obviously present among CXC stakeholders and
clients in early 1978. When the likely candidate
entry for 1979 was considered, it emerged that
only about 60 percent of the candidates in
the region who would normally have entered
for O’ Levels had registered to write CXC’s
examinations. The Council’s first offerings
were likely to be optional in most contributing
territories and might not be offered by two of
them. Clearly, there was a crisis of confidence
in the examination across the region.
That external lack of confidence in the CXC
product was not reflected internally by the CXC
staff nor did they doubt their ability to deliver
the examinations. That was my impression when
I took up office. Major Daniel’s contract had
ended in December,1977 and the Council’s 1977
Consultant had returned as Consultant Registrar
for a part of the period between Major Daniel’s
tenure and mine. The Consultant, on his earlier
visit, had found staff morale to be ‘surprisingly
good considering the difficulties under which
they worked.’ – a finding which suggested to me
that staff did have a problem of confidence, but
of a different kind from that which prevailed
externally.
CXC’s first order of business when I
assumed duties was therefore one of building
confidence both externally and internally. The
Council abandoned its earlier idea of a costly
public relations campaign by a professional firm.
CXC now began an intensive public relations
effort to promote its product externally. This
included information targeted to educators
in the region, to encourage them to embrace
new ideas in assessment. For the first time,
CXC explained and discussed publicly and in
detail, concepts such as: criterion-referencing
instead of norm-referencing, utilising profiles
to indicate student strengths and weaknesses,
School Based Assessment, Basic as distinct from
General Proficiency and finally table,rather than
individual marking.
The homegrown CXC public relations
campaign included wide dissemination of a Fact
Sheet aimed at prospective users and holders
of the CSEC and the general public, as well as
regular publication of information bulletins
to governments and the media. Two teams of
Committee members undertook promotional
visits to territories where there had been little
publicity previously. Members of National
Committees, the Chairman, Registrar, Pro
Registrar and staff of both Headquarters and
“AtmyinterviewforthepostofRegistrar,Ihadexpressed
concern that little was known about CXC across the
region. That concern was obviously present among CXC
stakeholders and clients in early 1978.”

Western Zone Office engaged in radio and
television presentations and discussions. In one
major territory a specially designed Publicity
Committee worked with the Government
Information Services in a CXC promotion
campaign. One example of the impact of this
PR campaign was the comment by a Barbadian
resident on the effort by Headquarters staff that
“CXC seemed to want to be famous in a few
short months.”
CXC also acquired its distinctive logo in
1978. It had been developed by a Barbadian
firm which had intended to bid for CXC’s PR
campaign. An approach to the firm suggested
a measure of frustration with CXC and a
willingness to part with the logo if the Council
was indeed financially unable to meet the cost
of a professional campaign. After some candid
discussion about the Council’s finances, brief
negotiations, and an exchange of letters, the
head of the firm decided to release the logo and
copyright to the Council for a token “piece of
silver”, that is, one Barbados silver dollar. I am
convinced that in the end it was his sympathy
rather than his frustration with CXC which
influenced the head of the firm to make the final,
generous decision in CXC’s favour.
Internally, we concentrated on providing
additional resources and reviewing what needed
to be done towards success in 1979. We also took
steps to win the confidence of Council and its
Committeesbyalevelof servicethatcommanded
attention, by thoroughness in preparation
and presentation, and by punctiliousness in
following up and reporting on decisions. It was
accepted that even if we made mistakes we were
responsible for managing the organization and
were therefore accountable. Four recollections
have stayed with me:
1.) a remark by Dr Irvine that we seemed to
know precisely what to bring to the Council and
its Committees and when;
2.) the comment of a CFTC visitor on
the thoroughness, conviction and passion of a
presentation by the Pro Registrar;
3.) a heated discussion on an issue and a
committee member’s interjection to the effect that
‘if we substitute our opinions for theirs we can not
hold them accountable when things go wrong;’
4.) a staff meeting in late 1978 and an
assessment by our newest recruit that “there are
many who think CXC is going to fail but we will
prove them wrong”.
A review of our resources towards 1979
found favour with Council which agreed to add a
substantial number of staff. CXC’s establishment
was increased by 17 in one year – seven senior
and eight supporting staff at HQ and two senior
staff at WZO. The matter of adequate space for
the marking also had to be addressed. In both
instances, considerations of time rather than
CXC’slongtermneedsinfluencedthedecision.At
HQ,refurbishment of BlockA,The Garrison,was
preferred to relocating elsewhere and steps were
taken to ensure that a first phase of refurbishment
was completed by the host government by
December and the second phase by April1979.
The relocation of WZO from West Kingston to
the Jamaica Teachers Association building in
Church Street of downtown Kingston, subject
to some minor refurbishing and partitioning,
was accepted in the circumstances, but was
less than ideal. In both instances the decisions
were expedient and reflected CXC’s continuing
need for custom-built accommodation at both
HQ and WZO. By October, 1978, the Report
to Council and the School Examinations
Committee for the period November, 1977,
to September, 1978, reinforced “the optimism
expressed in the last two reports by the Registrar
that CXC will conduct examinations of which we
can be reasonably proud.”
Eventually there were signs that the
external crisis of confidence was lessening and
a compromise decision could be reached on
the matter of candidate entries. I would like
to believe that when that decision was made,
it too was influenced both by the diplomatic
skills of our Chairman and the policy makers’
growing confidence in CXC, but I am unable to
recall the exact timing of the decision. While
one major territory provided its full candidate
population, another decided that its students
would be prepared for and would register to write
both the Cambridge O’ Levels and the CSEC in
the five subjects offered. These decisions alone
represented a minimum entry of some 23, 000
candidates. Council willingly agreed to timetable
its administration so as to avoid clashes with the
overseas Boards in the CXC subjects and was thus
assured of a significant population for 1979.
Long before it became a buzzword, ‘multi-
tasking’ was part of CXC’s stock in trade.
While the focus in late 1978 and early 1979
was on the coming examinations, the normal
work of the Council in syllabus development,
item production, pretesting, paper setting and
marker training for subsequent administrations
continued. In addition, two key activities for
1980 were in train. The first was the development
THE 1979 EXPERIENCE
CXC Headquarters in earlier times

colleague,resident in Guyana,that CXC appeared
to have placed the overseas Moderators in more
commodious accommodation than its own
Examiners! I noted that in future we should not
only be, but be seen to be, evenhanded.
Marking centres usually operate on three
principles:
1.) that no matter how apparently good and
careful the planning, there will be times when
Murphy’s Law will prevail and solutions will have
to be found,
2.) that every problem is simply a solution in
search of a finder and
3.) that at marking, the organization is
virtually turned on its head and all available
resources and bodies, from the Chairman to
the most junior staff member, are pressed into
service.
All three principles applied to both CXC
centres in 1979 and we had the benefit of both
Chairman and Pro Registrar at the Headquarters
Centre, the latter when the marking at the
Western Zone centre had been completed. The
presence of the Chairman proved to be invaluable
since he helped to clarify a policy decision which
in turn resolved a major difficulty encountered
in one subject.
At Headquarters we experienced a full range
of teething problems and I have no doubt that
the Western Zone Office centre did the same.
There were modifications to previously agreed
schedules. This had started with an earlier
decision to accept a number of late registrations.
In that case, a joint effort by Local Registrars,
CXC and ETS to deal with the amendments
of CXC’s own data processing system,acquisition
of software and training of staff in the use
of scanning equipment towards the 1980
examinations.
The second key activity was highly
developmental and related to building the
confidence of schools, teachers and potential
markers in CXC’s offerings. Beginning in
1978, CXC, in consultation with Pro Vice
Chancellor Rudolph Goodridge at the UWI
Cave Hill, assisted in drafting a major regional
project in Primary and Secondary Education
for submission to the United States Agency
for International Development (USAID). The
CXC subproject was the Secondary component
and focused on supporting CXC syllabuses and
training teachers to make better use of them.
The subproject was essentially in the area of
curriculum development: That is not normally
the business of an Examinations Board, but the
Council recognized the likely benefit to CXC and
gave its blessing to the effort. The result was a
four-year project which was funded by USAID in
the amount of US$2.6 million and which proved
its worth to the region in both curriculum and
materials development in subsequent years.
Thirteen of the 14 contributing territories
eventually presented some 30,000 candidates
and just under 59,000 subject entries in the five
subjects (English,History,Geography,Integrated
Science,and Mathematics) for the 1979 marking.
For reasons of security and confidentiality
Council decided to implement a “residential
marking system”and to establish marking centres
in hotel accommodation at both Headquarters
and Western Zone. Two subjects (English and
Integrated Science) were marked in Jamaica,and
three (History, Geography, and Mathematics)
were marked in Barbados. One experienced staff
member from the Examinations Administration
Division at HQ was assigned to the WZO for the
durationof themarking. Themarkingitself lasted
for two weeks beginning on 16th July. It was a
sustained effort by the CXC resource persons
made up of Examining Committees appointed
since 1977,markers drawn mainly from the cadre
trained between 1975 and 1978, and British
Moderators who were chief or senior Examiners
from British Boards. These Moderators had been
invited to attend the marking so as to assist the
Council’s Examining Committees in setting and
maintaining standards deemed comparable to
GCE O’ Level standards.
To deal with the sheer volume of material,
CXC recruited a number of clerical assistants
(called “aides” in 1979) to assist the full-time
staff. A 1978 marker training and pretesting
exercise had identified three persons at HQ and
two atWZO to serve as chief aides. These helped
to supervise the new recruits who had been
selected on the basis of recommendations from
senior staff who could attest to their reliability
and confidentiality.
The 1978 exercise had also served as a
simulation for the “live” 1979 examinations and
had taught us a number of valuable lessons.
It had revealed delays in both postal and air
communications, so regional cooperation
was sought from airlines, customs and airport
authorities and the scripts and other materials
from the various territories reached HQ and
WZO offices in good time for the marking to
begin on schedule. Marker accommodation
arrangements in 1978 had also proved to be
unsatisfactory and had caused dissatisfaction.
Council therefore decided to accept the cost
implications and to house all 1979 resource
persons in individual hotel accommodation.
CXC made no attempt, as it did in succeeding
years, to encourage resource persons to share
accommodation.
In Barbados, sequestered hotel marking
maintained security of the examinations but
did not isolate us from public curiosity. It did
not prevent some resource persons from feeding
back information to friends outside on our
accommodation arrangements. I experienced
the speed of the regional grapevine and the
power of perception when I was told by a former
Reflections - L to R: Professor George Maxwell Richards, a former UWI Representative on
Council, Honourable Erskine Sandiford, a former Minister of Education in Barbados, listen
to the late Dr Dennis Irvine, then CXC Chairman

solved the difficulty, but time had still been
lost. There were problems with equipment;
provisions for space proved inadequate and
had to be adjusted; operations apparently well-
planned for the Marking Centre (e.g.,completion
or “gridding” of the OMR sheets) had to be
shifted to the Headquarters Office; bottlenecks
in the flow of information developed and had
to be unclogged. One of them developed into a
situation that was serious enough to require me
to cut what was in danger of becoming a Gordian
knot.There were the usual mopping up exercises
requiring extra effort, but all concerned at both
centres worked long and unsociable hours to
complete their tasks.
Scores from the marked question papers
werecapturedusingOpticalMarkReader(OMR)
or scanner technology. ETS had been contracted
to read the OMR sheets completed by clerical
staff; to collate the candidates’ marks; feedback
statistical information and to provide grades
in keeping with grade boundaries approved
by the Council’s awarding committees in
was kept in subsequent years and has been
improved upon each year.
One former staff member has already
recounted in an earlier issue of the Caribbean
Examiner, her role in accompanying the final
examination results which had been processed
by ETS. They came from Princeton to Barbados
by air in some 29 boxes and she had to sort them
all over again on her arrival. She also recalled the
famous CXC decision to resort to a rubber date
stamp for the 1979 Certificates since the printed
Certificates had no date. That stamp alone must
have rendered each 1979 certificate a priceless
collector’s item!
The 1979 results were first issued to
candidates by way of preliminary results slips.
Despite the rubber stamp, we had spent some
time on the design of the Certificate but omitted
to do the same for the results slip. The slips
produced by ETS were small in size and a far cry
from the present-day slips which contain many
features of the Certificate. The inadequacy was
soonpickedupbyoneinfluentialschoolprincipal
2.) Dr Dennis Irvine, of blessed memory, for
his superb expertise and skills and his stature in
regional and international education circles which
he put to CXC’s use while serving as Chairman.
3.) the academics, administrators, educators
and government representatives, appointed or co-
opted, who believed that the time had come for the
region to take charge of its own examinations and
who ably gave of their knowledge, experience and
guidance on the Council and its Committees.
4.) the CXC full-time and part-time clerical
staff, the CXC consultants and all those resource
persons who, whether as Subject Panellists,
Examiners, Moderators, Workshop Participants,
Item Writers, Markers, National Committee
members or Local Registrars, took pride in being
associated with CXC’s early development and
operations and worked unstintingly to ensure the
delivery of valid, reliable and secure examinations
and results.
5.) The UK Examinations Boards which
helped to train CXC staff and Markers and
organizations and international donor agencies
THE 1979 EXPERIENCE
Mr Wilfred Beckles was the Registrar of
CXC when the first CSEC examinations
were administered in 1979.
“...that no matter how apparently good and careful the planning, there will
be times when Murphy’s Law will prevail and solutions will have to be found.”
consultation with the British Moderators. The
flow of this information between CXC and ETS
was maintained in several ways. The initially
completed OMR sheets were collected by the
ETS representative from the marking centre in
Barbados and added to those collected in Jamaica
on his way back to ETS. CXC had also acquired
its own set of scanners from National Computer
Systems (NCS) of the USA and appointed and
trained staff in their use toward self-sufficiency
in 1980 and beyond. These too were pressed
into service to supplement the ETS effort.
Inevitably, after quality control checks had been
made,additions or amendments were necessary.
Transfer of these was done where possible by
cable or telex. In at least one instance, it was
necessary for a Headquarters staff member to
carry by hand materials and data from the CXC
scanners to ETS in the United States.
Teething problems and delays in the data
processing schedules between CXC and ETS
resulted in the results being issued late,one week
behind the planned schedule,on 15th September,
1979. That too was noted for remedial action and
a promise was made to issue results in future by
the end of August each year – a promise which
who wrote to the Chairman, with a copy to the
Registrar, rightly complaining that the quality
of the results slips was below CXC’s standard. It
therefore fell to me as Registrar to recognize the
compliment underlying that reproach, i.e., that
CXC had set high standards and was expected to
live up to them in all respects. I replied, with a
copy to the Chairman, that we had indeed erred
but would do better in future.
CXC has clearly been doing better from year
to year: I must congratulate the Council and all
the staff since the first marking for improving on
the 1979 standard over the years. I am grateful
to Registrar, Dr Jules and his staff for allowing
me this opportunity to say thanks publicly
once again to all staff who were involved in the
inaugural effort.
The Council itself owes a considerable
debt of gratitude to a number of persons and
organizations to whose service the successful
launch of the 1979 examinations should be
attributed:
1.) Sir Roy Marshall and the CARICOM
Secretariat for their sterling work in getting the
Council established and for the preparatory work
leading up to 1974.
such as CFTC, CIDA, ETS, and USAID who
supplied the funding and the resource persons
in assessment and data processing to assist and
supplement CXC’s own technically trained
manpower.
6.) the contributing governments who
supplied the finances, made the initial regional
commitment to the examinations and provided
support through their officials in a variety of
ways, thereby providing the Council with the
opportunity to demonstrate to all the world that it
was capable of developing and administering new
and innovative examinations.
On a final,personal note,my own gratitude
must go to my former colleagues at CXC and to
one former colleague and mentor at UWI, Mr
Rudolph Goodridge, also of blessed memory.
He persuaded me to consider a stint at CXC
that became much more – but that is another
experience and another story which falls outside
my remit.

ARTICLE TO STRETCH
TO FILL THIS SPACE

THE 1979 EXPERIENCE
THE CLASS OF 1979
PRE-TESTED! TESTED!
PROVEN!
By Astrid Waterman
When I walked up
the steps of the Caribbean
Examinations Council on
that first day of November
1977, I knew what I was
going to do.I knew how it
was going to be. After all,
I had taken the decision
that after spending over
ten years in a position
where I had responsibility
and accountability for a work unit comprising ten
persons in an office,an additional twelve in the field
onsomedays,andwhich interfacedwithsomeother
eleven persons working both in office and the field,
all of whom were involved in a project with very
tight to almost impossible deadlines, that I would
now be taking on a job where I would just be one of
the operatives; responsible for my own output only.
Here at CXC I would prepare camera-ready copy
for publications as directed by my supervisor. This
task would have specific guidelines and procedures
which I would follow.
But, didn’t I get the shock of my life! It didn’t
take me long to come to grips with the stark fact
that the organization was on a mission.There was a
task to be accomplished. It had to be accomplished.
There could and would be no missing of that
deadline of the administration of examinations
in five subjects in 1979, and everyone concerned
seemed committed to achieving that goal, despite
the personal sacrifices that had to be made; and
there were many.
Wow! What was I to do? Well I knew that too.
I had to get on board. After all, working to tight
schedules and impossible deadlines was not new to
me; and on hindsight I should have realized from
the time I was interviewed for a position at CXC: a
post which was advertised to be filled at either the
Junior Assistant or Assistant Registrar level.
During the interview, I had indicated that I
was interested in the Junior level, and had been
bold and I suppose brazen enough when asked
to give my reason for wanting to leave what was a
senior post in the government service, to respond
that the major attraction was the salary level and
less responsibility.
With this response, I was sure that I had
blown it, so one can imagine my surprise when in
less than five hours after the interview, I received a
telephone call offering the post at the higher level.
I should have known that more was expected than
I had envisioned.
But as I said, the atmosphere was one of
commitment and determination. One that said,
we are going to get it done. We will do it for the
Caribbean. So, I definitely was not going to be the
odd man out. I caught the 1979 blast-off fever.
My first three days were spent rather quietly.
First I had to provide some personal data and then I
was given some literature about the organization to
read. I had read and understood the documentation
from day one, but pored over it again and again on
days two and three,because no one brought me any
other tasks on those days. But when day four came,
I was not prepared to sit on the sidelines anymore,
so, I suppose, being bold and brazen once more, I
approached the then Registrar and asked why had
I been taken on at that time, if there was nothing
for me to do.
Well,toborrowalinefromPaulKeansDouglas,
‘Who tell me to ask he dat‘? Being the man of action
that he was, within a couple of hours he had made
contact with Educational Testing Services (ETS) in
Princeton New Jersey and arranged an attachment
for me so that I could have a firsthand look at their
question paper production and printing procedures
and undergo some relevant training.
Little did I know how valuable this experience
would be, for on return I found myself thrown
in at the deep end with; (i) the preparation of
pretest forms for a region-wide exercise which was
to be conducted in a few weeks time and (ii) the
preparation of draft question papers and marking
schemes for the 1979 administration: both of which
were already well behind schedule. And you know
those specific guidelines and procedures that I
spoke about earlier? They didn’t exist.So we literally
had to develop them from scratch and on the trot.
Fortunately,as it is always said some good comes out
of every problem. I can certainly state that we were
able to develop procedures and guidelines specific
to the CXC which, with tweaking and revision as
became necessary when demands and technology
changed, saw us through those first years and many
more to follow.I recall a Past Chairman saying to me
one day,“You know Mrs Waterman,you have made
our Production function what we never thought it
could be in the Caribbean.”
But did I say Production? Between 1977 and
1978 there was no Production Unit.These functions
were allocated to the Examinations Division and
to all intents and purposes much thought did
not appear to have been given to how differently
the preparation of camera-ready copy for the
examination papers was to be handled from that
of the general typing functions in the organization.
Consequently, to ensure that my tasks got done,
I found myself taking decisions and making
recommendations which really belonged in the
purview of the Divisional Head.
Little did I know that this was being observed
andsoon,adecisionwastakentotaketheProduction
function out of the Examinations Division by the
establishment of a small Unit. So here was I, that
person who was going to be accountable and
responsible for no one’s output but her own, back
with the responsibility for a work-unit, and one
which would be handling the most secure and
confidential documents - the examination papers.
It was time to prepare those numerous pretests
forms with accompanying manuals and other
administrative documentation as well as draft 1979
papers,and in the case of 1979,the Multiple Choice
Paper was not just one question paper.Each subject
Mrs Astrid Waterman

and in at least one case, each proficiency had at
least five test forms, because in addition to being
the examination question paper, each of these MC
papers contained a pre-testing section aimed at
providing more MC items for the item bank.
The demand was great, staffing was minimal
and equipment was problematic. There was an old
typewriter and a first model Selectric composer,
each of these with minimal memory capacity.
Another of the same composers was on order
and I had to agitate swiftly and forcefully to get
that upgraded to one with maximum memory
storage capacity which would make it easier to
handle the numerous revisions and amendments
that were being done to the documents. That took
some doing, with even the supplier becoming very
irate and demanding to come himself to CXC to
see who was this Mrs Waterman that wanted to
have a machine which was not yet released for the
Caribbean market. But in the end good judgment
prevailed and we got it; not as expeditiously as we
would have liked, but we did.
Meantime, there was a task to be done and
we were determined to get it done. We worked
assiduously, many times well into the night. Much
midnight oil was burnt, and even though we were
actually packaging the final pretest forms while the
staff members travelling with them were either on
their way to the airport or actually boarding their
flights out of Barbados, we made it.
Thefinal1979examinationpaperstoowerenot
without the pressure of a late start,indecision about
questions and all those unexpected things which
create apprehension and delay, but we managed to
reach our revised deadline for the dispatch of the
camera-ready copy in all five subjects.
Hey,wait,did I say all five? Well I guess I could
say so now, but an incident with the Integrated
Science Papers comes readily to mind. This had to
do with Copyright permission for use of stimulus
material in question papers. Given training which
I in Copyright Law as it relates to publications,
which I had undergone in my previous job, I had
sought to advise the Examining Committee when
they submitted a question in which they were using
a clip from the famous comic strip PEANUTS, that
permission would have to be sought for its use, but
they were adamant that since it was being used in
an examinations paper, they did not have to do so.
The paper was developed, produced, completed
and dispatched to be printed. Then along came
Mr Ian Urquhart of The Scottish Examinations
Board who was brought on to act as Advisor to the
Registrar for the first administration. On the first
day he visited the Production Unit, one of the first
questionsheaskedwaswhetherallstimulusmaterial
had been cleared for Copyright use. Of course he
was told about PEANUTS.He immediately advised
that permission be sought. This request was sent
off post-haste and the reply was received post-
post-haste, as follows.‘NO! Permission will not and
cannot be granted for use of anything from PEANUTS.
PEANUTS carries special Copyright use restrictions.
We,however,enclose for your consideration,some clips
from six other cartoons which in our view are based
on a similar theme to that of the PEANUTS one you
submitted with your request. You are free to use any
of these if you so decide but not PEANUTS.’
Well,Well,Well.At this time Elma Licorish was
on her way to ETS in the US to collect and bring
the question papers back.So you can guess the mad
scramble to get hold of the Chief Examiner who
was at this time out of the region, to have the paper
revised; ETS to put a hold on the packaging of that
question paper which has already been printed. O
Carambo! Stress and more stress. However, more
midnight oil, determination and commitment saw
us through.
In respect of the question papers, another
incident stands out in my mind.This has to do with
the impact that late registrations and last minute
switches of subject and proficiency entries by
candidates had on our capacity to ensure that there
wereadequatenumbersof questionpapersavailable.
The order quantities were based on the preliminary
registration figures with what was thought to be a
sufficient percentage of extras. But when the final
figures were in, it was immediately recognized that
there would have been a significant shortfall in
both proficiencies. A quiet unannounced, internal
solution was found and some additional papers
and OS maps were produced. When the problem
was officially realized it was possible to respond –
‘already addressed.’
There were also some hiccups when persons
“There was an old typewriter and a first
model Selectric composer; each of these
with minimal memory capacity...I had
to agitate swiftly and forcefully to get
that upgraded to one with maximum
memory storage capacity which would
make it easier to handle the numerous
revisions and amendments that were
being done to the documents.”
identified as couriers for confidential materials
sometimes did not notify us that due to a change
in schedule they could not accommodate us as
agreed. This resulted in delays and necessitated
re-scheduling, but despite the fact that Murphy’s
Law was very evident, the examinations were duly
administered in 1979 as planned.
Then came the marking exercise. How did I
get involved in this? We were all involved. It was a
collaborative effort of all CXC personnel, region-
wide. But for me it was more than just general
commitment. It was a responsibility. By this time
I had been promoted to the position of Senior
AssistantRegistrar,ExaminationsDivision(inclusive
of the Production Function). Yes, this is the same
person who was looking for no responsibility other
than for her own output.
We were now interfacing with other divisions
and external agencies on all sorts of issues including
the recruitment of markers and marker aides; the
movement of people and materials throughout the
region; identifying and securing suitable making
venues and appropriate furniture; developing
and producing relevant manuals and other
administrative documents; making arrangements
for marker accommodation; catering and local
ground transportation. Of course Murphy was
present, but we showed him that where there is a
will there is a way. Yes, we were Pre-tested, Tested,
and almost CERTIFIED, but we were PROVEN to
be up to the task.
The exercise was not without its bleeps and
blunders,nor was it without its very tense moments,
but seldom,if ever,was there any finger-pointing or
temper-flaring.Instead,the spirit of determination,
goal-centredness and cooperation pervaded every
action.
In 1977-78 there was no Production
Unit. These functions were allocated
to the Examinations Division and to
all intents and purposes much thought
did not appear to have been given to
how differently the preparation of
camera-ready copy for the examination
papers was to be handled from that
of the general typing functions in the
organization.
TheClassof 1979
At a marking centre in earlier times:
Mr Baldwin Hercules and Mrs Edwina Griffith

In 1979 a group
o f M a t h e m a t i c s
teachers were invited
by Mr Leo Owen to
assist in compiling a
Mathematics Syllabus
for the Caribbean
Secondary Education
Certificate examination
in Mathematics. We
made our contribution and it was presumably
submitted.
Subsequently, three of us from Guyana
were invited to participate in a series of
workshops,two of which were held in Trinidad
andoneinGuyanaattheCyrilPotterCollegeof
Education. There we interacted with teachers
from other Caribbean territories. In Trinidad
I met Irene Walter, who was the Pro Registrar
and who later became the Registrar. I also
met James Halliday, who was a Measurement
and Evaluation Officer. There was also Cecil
Caruth, from Tobago, who always insisted
that Trinidadians at the workshop introduce
themselves as from Trinidad and Tobago. He
and I became good friends and we roomed
together at subsequent marking exercises.
Marking in 1979 at the Windsor Hotel in
Hastings,Barbadoswastraumatic. Theactivity
was new to all and the planners certainly did
not anticipate the problems which were
created with the marking procedures. Suffice
it to say that lessons from the first marking
were learnt very quickly and today relatively
efficient marking procedures have evolved.
In1980IleftGuyanatomarkinBarbados.
My family joined me in 1981.
In 1981 marking was taken to Jamaica.
What a gratifying experience that was! There,
I renewed acquaintances (not seen since
1962) and made new ones from all over the
Caribbean. This is one of the great ‘plusses’
coming out of CXC.
Someone, somewhere, recognized talent,
of which I was unaware, and I was promoted
from Table Leader, now known as Examiner,
to be a member of the Examining Team. As an
Examiner you were required to be thoroughly
familiar with the Mark Schemes of the two
questions being marked at your table. As Team
Assistant this was extended to all fourteen
questions on the paper. WOW! In addition,
you select questions for standardisation,assign
Examiners and Assistant Examiners to tables,
assist in rewriting Mark Schemes and teach the
same to the Examiners. Further,you supervise
a Marking Centre not only in your home
territory.The supervision requires monitoring
the rates and quality of the marking and
ensuring that the marking is completed within
the allotted time.
The Mathematics Syllabus too has
evolved. I look back in awe comparing the
demand from candidates then and now.
Today’s question papers and marking have
moved in the right direction as they seek
to identify and reward all mathematical
knowledge of candidates.
Ilookonmyinvolvementasacontribution
to the Caribbean. While the marking exercise
is often very demanding since unlike an
Examiner, the team member invariably has
‘homework,’ I have always been happy to
participate.
30 years of involvement
with CSEC Mathematics
By Clement Derrell
THE 1979 EXPERIENCE
“In 1981 marking was taken to Jamaica. What a gratifying
experience that was! There, I renewed acquaintances (not
seensince1962)andmadenewonesfromallovertheCaribbean.
This is one of the great ‘plusses’ coming out of CXC.”
Mr Clement Derrell

Wherearetheynow?
CSEC CLASS OF 1979
Debbie Gurley-Rivers
St Vincent Girls’ High School
In a blink of an eye 30 years have gone by!
1979 conjures up images of the eruption of La
Soufriere Volcano, CXC and of course the silver
lining – graduation!
I am so honored to have been part of
this impressive Class of 1979 and to be one of
the first Girls’ High School students to have
participated in the CXC examinations.
Diane Spencer
St Joseph’s Convent
St Lucia
I am one of the students from St Joseph’s
Convent, St Lucia who sat CXC’s first CSEC
examinations in 1979.
This year was a milestone for me because
there was a significant event occurring in St
Lucia and I was fortunate to have been selected
as a liaison aid to overseas dignitaries attending
St Lucia’s Independence celebrations.
Over the past 30 years I have been
employed in the Civil Service as a Secretary
(after leaving Morne Technical College now Sir
Arthur Lewis Community College in 1981) for
approximately 11 years and a further 12 years as
an Administrative Secretary at St Lucia Air and
Sea Ports Authority.
As an employee, I continued to educate
myself on a part-time basis in preparation for
university acceptance. During 1995 to 1997, I
pursued a BSc in Management Studies at UWI,
Mona Campus. After a break, I embarked on
attaining an MBA in Project Management with
Henley Management College/University of
Reading and was awarded the MBA in Project
Management in January 2009.
From 2004, I have been self-employed
and partner with my husband in running
an autobody repair business –Mauricette’s
Auto Repairs Inc. I am a proud mother of
two boys, ages six and 10 years.
I feel honoured to be a member of the
Class of ‘79. Many of us are still in contact
with each other and look forward to every
occasion to mingle and reminisce and we are
well advanced in preparations for celebrating
our 30th Anniversary.
MythankstoCXC,forincludingtheClass
of ‘79 in celebrating CSEC’s 30th Anniversary.
I view CXC as our own examination board
advancing the cause for edifying and moulding
the Caribbean’s young minds.
Although it has been 30 years, I can
vividly remember getting the news that CXC
examination was introduced in the Caribbean
and I was slated to be one of the guinea pigs to
write the first exams. I had conflicting feelings
about this , thinking why bother about writing
exams that may never materialized,so with those
thoughts in mind I remembered deciding to
do a double header to write both examinations,
CXC and GCE in similar subjects just in case
one phased out I will still have a bird in the
hand .
It was nerve racking – La Soufriere spurting
ash and lava all over our beautiful Island of St
Vincent and the Grenadines and me, secretly
wishing that the exams would be postponed as I
kept procrastinating studying for CXC; wishful
thinking.
Neverthelesstheexamswereonscheduleand
even with all the misgivings and apprehensions
of writing CXC I managed to score a Grade I in
Caribbean History, II in Geography and III
in Mathematics and English.
In retrospect, I wish I had taken the
exam more seriously and had prepared
myself more diligently, than merely just
writing it as a supplement to GCE. I would
have gained better grades.
To all our young brilliant Caribbean
students,please remember what ever mission
you undertake to do, be dedicated and
discipline your mind to persevere.
The CXC should be very proud to have
maintained such a high standard of these
exams with growth and diversity.
I now reside in Edmonton, Alberta
Canada, working as a Senior Independent
Travel Counselor with the most prestigious
CanadianVirtuoso Travel company –Vision
2000Travelgroup–winnerof theAtlasTravel
Agency of the year award.I have achieved the
number one position with Holland America
Cruise line as a LBD.

sort of grade they might receive. The English
Language component was challenging, and
from what I recall some persons felt it was more
difficult than the GCE paper.
Thereafter, in 1982 I pursued A’Levels
at Barbados Community College, and then
completed my Honours Degree in Biology at
UWI Cave Hill in 1986. I felt it was important
to have a different student experience, which
required that I study abroad. I had developed an
interest in applied marine sciences and fisheries
while at Cave Hill and considered this to be
an expanding area of interest for the island.
So, I applied for a Student Revolving Loan to
study Fisheries Biology and Management at the
University College of North Wales – Bangor,
Wales UK. I also received a partial scholarship
from the British Council to assist with my studies.
That programme was highly enlightening and
provided me with direct hands-on exposure
to mariculture studies and opportunities. I
returned to Barbados with keen ideas of working
in the Fisheries Division as this was my main
interest – especially the field of mariculture and
aquaculture.
IstartedtoworkattheCoastalConservation
Project Unit in 1989 as the Marine Biologist,
and truly found my niche. I was fortunate to
experiencetheexpansionanddevelopmentof the
Unit over the years. In 1996, I was promoted to
the post of Deputy Director and also took
on the challenge to be the Project Manager
for the Coastal Conservation Programme
Phase 1 Study of the East Coast. This
project resulted in the development of
the Integrated Coastal Zone Management
Plan for the island. I have been able to see
the office develop into the Coastal Zone
Management Unit in 1996, as well as the
passage of the Coastal Zone Management
Act in 1999.
In 2000, I received a National
Development Scholarship to pursue
Doctoral Studies in Coastal Zone
Management at Cardiff University in
Wales, UK. That has been one of the
greatest educational experiences of my
professional career.I was able to complete
my research and return to work in 2003,
and graduated in 2005. I have been the
Director of the Unit since 2004 and am
glad to know that Barbados has a coast
to be proud of!
I wish to commend the Caribbean
Examinations Council on its anniversary
and its continued success especially as it
branches out into different CXC and CAPE
courses as well as CVQ courses.
Madgerie Jameson
St Lucia
I graduated from the St. Joseph’s Convent
in July 1979. I was one of the first students to
write CSEC General English examination in
1979. It was a different experience for me because
wepreparedforCambridgeEnglishexaminations
as well as CXC English. The two examinations
were different so we had to approach the subjects
differently. I remember the examination was
a difficult one because we had to change the
‘normal’way of doing things to cater for the‘the
new exams’. We were not very receptive students
because we thought that it was extra work. CXC
has evolved over the 30 years and the standard
of the examination is reputable.
After my secondary educaton I became
a trained Mathematics and Science Teacher.
I worked as a primary school teacher for 14
years and a secondary teacher for eight years. I
pursued a BSc in Psychology at the Univerisity
of the West Indies, St. Augusitne. I was among
the first students who graduated with a BSc
in Psychology from the University of the West
Indies.I was also among the first graduates of the
Masters of Education offered by the University
of Sheffield Caribbean programme in St. Lucia.
Currently,I am on a Commonwealth Scholarship
at the University of Otago, New Zealand. I
have recently completed a PhD in Educational
Dr Leo Brewster
Harrison College – Barbados
It was some 30 years ago, as a student
at Harrison College, that I sat the Caribbean
Examinations Council’s examinations as part
of the first cohort of students across the island
taking GEC O’ levels and CXC examinations. At
that time, I remember it being a rather daunting
and unnerving experience –as we were the first!
The three subjects I sat at that time were History,
English Language and Maths. I had a keen
interest in Caribbean History and found that
subject totally enjoyable.Maths had never been a
favourite of mine so that proved a bit challenging,
especially as there were no past papers to practice
on.As a result, the class spent a lot of time going
through the traditional GCE O’ Level papers for
practice. I do remember that the paper was like
granite! Even those class mates, who were very
maths competent,left the exam questioning what
Psychology. I submitted my thesis and
am awaiting the result. The focus of
my PhD is learning and instruction
in higher education. My research
interests are assessment for learning
in higher education, high-stakes testing,
lifelong learning, the first year univerisity
experience,and transition issues in higher
education.
During my stay at the University
of Otago, I had the opportunity to work
as a research assistant at the Educational
Assessment Research Unit (EARU).
My tenure at the unit was valuable
as I gained a working knowledge of
assessmentproceduresundertheguidance
of Professors Terry Crooks and Jeffrey
Smith.
I returned to St Lucia at the end of
April 2009. I intend to use the experiences
I gained to help enhance learning and
instruction in the region.

Wherearetheynow?CSEC CLASS OF 1979
Portia Compton-James
St Lucia
1979 and the CXC exams, a year I will
never forget for many reasons. The final
year of high school; the transitional year
from childhood to womanhood; leaving the
hallowed walls of our learning and sheltered
institution;a time for decision making,do we
go straight to work? Do we continue along
our academic paths to higher learning? Do
we remain in St Lucia or migrate overseas?
Regardless of our dilemmas, the CXC exams
were a jump-start for all that we hoped to
achieve.
On receiving the news that we the
students of Form five, graduating May
1979, would be the pilots for a new exam,
there were mixed feelings. Some of us were
upset that there would be yet another set of
Cecile McKie
St Vincent Grammar School
Lifeisbutacontinuumof opportunities
and challenges; it is our ability to turn
the challenges into opportunities that
will determine the degree of success/
accomplishment of each individual.
If one is to use this simple premise in
one’s approach to life and living, then life
may not turn out to be the complicated
process that we sometimes make it.
The opportunity to have followed the
CSEC Curriculum and sit the inaugural
examinations in 1979 provided me with the
exams; the over-zealous test takers were excited
to get the opportunity to showoff the fruits of
their obsessive labour; others hoped that these
exams would be easier than the traditional
GCE; yet others like myself thought this was a
revolutionary move for the Caribbean to have
its own exams. It was a very exciting time,
something new and we saw in this the start of
great possibilities for Caribbean students to reach
higher levels within our own arenas.
However, one of my concerns at the time
was whether or not these exams would be
recognized overseas, in the UK or in the United
States. Would I need to be tested all over again
if I decided to pursue my schooling outside of
St Lucia? This brought about minor fears; can
we really stand on our own? Therefore, I was
especially happy to have the best of both worlds;
a bigger part of the old and a little of the new,
something to fall back on and something to look
forward to in the future.
I believed at that time, like any normal
teenager, that the CXC was just an exam, a test
to study for, pass and move on. It produced
additional stress, as the objective in proficiency
was vital and a lot depended on our ability to
cope.The CXC exams focused on core knowledge
content and skills that would assist in diagnosing
these tests to determine which features needed
be further developed and modified. It is quite
evident that the CXC exams have remained on
the path towards success on standardized exams
and our students have nothing to worry about
when it comes to excelling.

CXC exams were motivational and helped
shape my development. I am extremely proud to
have been given the opportunity to set the stage,
for the pioneering of a Caribbean exam, truly
reinforcement of our abilities and capabilities as a
Caribbean people.
platform of choice and the wisdom of analysis to
choose this simple premise to accomplish and to
be success oriented.
This platform allowed me to enter the
field of Banking, a sojourn which occupied
my time and energies from 4 June, 1980 to
31March, 2000 with the National Commercial
Bank (SVG) Limited. During that period, I was
able to progress through the ranks from a Teller
to a Loan Officer, to Branch Manager for the
Grenadines (Bequia,Union Island and Canouan)
and finally to Manager of the Halifax Street
Branch, Kingstown.
This sojourn then allowed me to make the
transfer from a Banking career to a Management
position in the insurance field. This was effected
on 17 April, 2000 when I joined the team at the
St. Hill Insurance Company Limited, which
I have managed from that time to present
(March 2009), currently holding the position
of Managing Director. Both attachments
allowed me the opportunity for training in the
particular fields (Banking and Insurance) and
in the important area of Management. These
included local and regional training programmes
and certification seminars. This extended to
the Diploma Programme in Management
at the Barbados Institute of Management
and Productivity (BIMAP) in Barbados, the
Association of Insurance Institute of the
Caribbean (AIIC) Programme in Principles of
Insurance and Legal Aspects of Insurance and
exposure to the workings of the Re-insurance
Markets in London (particularly Lloyds). I was
called to do community and humanitarian work
even prior to leaving school; this in preference to
advancing my obvious outstanding skill in track
and field, football and cricket.
My Curriculum Vitae in this field includes:
President of the Arnos Vale Educational Sports
and Cultural Organisation (AVESCO), Vice
President of both the SVG Athletics Association
and SVG Football Federation, Chairman of the
West St. George Area Council, Chairman of the
National Sports Council, Member of various
other national boards and President of the
Rotary Club of Bequia as well as Rotary Club of
St Vincent South. I am also the sitting President
of the Insurance Association of St Vincent and
the Grenadines (2nd year).
Combined, these experiences in the world
of work and in service have allowed me to be a
rounded individual with a positive attitude and
approach to all endeavours and a deep will to
achieve and advance whatever the cause.
Being a part of the ‘Class of ’79’ would, no
doubt, have prepared me for this life of service.
THANKS CSEC/CXC.

Dr Camille Nicholls
The Girls’ High School Class of 1979
wrote both the GCE examination and the
inauguralCXCexaminationssimultaneously.
This was done at a time when the entire
Ormond Williams
Ormond Williams was one of the first
batch of students attending the St Vincent
Grammar School to sit the CXC CSEC
examinations in 1979. Following his success
at these exams, he went on to pursue his
A’Level studies at his Alma Mater.
In June 1981 he joined the staff
country was thrown into a state of uncertainty
and near panic as the La Soufriere Volcano
sprang into life. Mock exams were written with
volcanic ash falling on the papers even as students
attempted to satisfy the examiners. During this
period, the Girl Guides were required to be on
duty at various centers to assist evacuees from
Sandy Bay (a community in the north of the
island) and surrounding areas. With cauliflower
clouds of ash overhead,and balls of fire traversing
the skies,we still continued with our preparation
for exams.
The fact that so many students of the class
of 1979 were successful in both examinations
despite trying conditions remains a testament
to the sound basic education offered at the Girls’
High School 30 years ago.
Dr Nicholls wrote A’Levels at the StVincent
Grammar School. After A’Levels, she spent one
year at the University of the West Indies - Cave
Hill Campus in the Faculty of Natural Sciences.
In 1984 she proceeded to St Georges University
School of Medicine and graduated in 1989.
Upon graduation, Dr. Nicholls returned to
St Vincent and the Grenadines and served her
five-year bond. During that time she completed
her internship programme and worked as a
District Medical Officer in Chateaubelair and
Bequia.
In 1996, she left for the United Kingdom to
pursue post graduate studies in Obstetrics and
Gynaecology. Dr. Nicholls was successful in her
examsin1998andbecameaMemberof theRoyal
College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
(MRCOG). She again returned home in 2000.
In 2007 she was inducted as a Fellow of
the American College of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists (FACOG).
Today, Dr. Nicholls serves as a Consultant
Obstetrician/Gynecologist at the Milton Cato
Memorial Hospital – a post she accepted in 2001 –
and has a successful private practice at theVictoria
Medical Centre.
of Barclays Bank Plc in St Vincent and the
Grenadines and made his way up the ranks to
being selected to join the Barclays Management
Development Programme (MDP) designed
to fast track employees with high potential to
senior management. To continue his MDP
training, in 1994 he was transferred to Barclays’
Regional Headquarters in Barbados where
he spent two years in various areas including
Offshore Banking, Information Technology,
Operations and Administration and Credit Risk
Management. Whilst on the MDP in St Vincent
& the Grenadines, Mr Williams completed his
Certificate in Business Administration with the
University of the West Indies and his Banking
Certificate with the Chartered Institute of
Bankers (CIB) in the United Kingdom.
To provide him with international
experience, Mr Williams was seconded in 1996
to several of Barclays’ operations in the United
Kingdom for 12 months. Areas covered included
Human Resources, Operations, Retail Banking
and Offshore Banking. During his stint in the
UK, he completed his Diploma in Banking from
the Chartered Institute of Bankers (now Institute
of Financial Services,School of Finance) and was
awarded his Associateship (ACIB).
Mr Williams was transferred to Belize
in 1997 to become Barclays Deputy Country
Manager and Senior Corporate Manager. In
2000 he was transferred back to Barbados as
Head of Offshore Banking and occupied a seat
on the Bank’s Barbados Country Management
Committee.
In 2002 he resigned from Barclays and
took up the post of Executive Vice President
of Cayman National Bank (CNB). In 2003 he
became President of CNB and continues in
this role at present. He is also a Director on the
Bank’s Board.
Ormond is a Fellow of the Institute of
Financial Services and Fellow of the Chartered
Management Institute in the UK. He holds
a Certificate in Management Studies from
University of Manchester, UK. He is Chairman
of the Board of Directors, Children and Youth
Services, Cayman Islands; Director – Caribbean
Association of Indigenous Banks, St Lucia; an
Accredited Lay Preacher in the Methodist Church
in the Caribbean and Americas and Elder in the
John Gray United Church, Cayman Islands.
He is married to Rachel, a Belizean national
and they have one child, Joshua.

Jennifer Hoad-King
Queen’s College
Barbados
Queen’s College was every bit a wonderful
girls’ school and by fourth form we started
seriouspreparationsforourGCEO’levels.Ichose
Languages over Sciences. It was at this time that
we were told we would be taking, for the first
time, History at CXC (CSEC) level, taught by
Mrs Roseanne Perkins.
In 1979, on completion of my GCEs
and CXC I was awarded an American Field
Scholarship which afforded me the opportunity
to spend a year in the small mid-western town of
Strongsville, Ohio in the United States. I became
part of a family who has remained just that to this
day – family. It was an interesting, exciting and
educational year that I will treasure always.
On returning home in 1980, I immediately
went to work in the computer division of an
insurance company prior to taking a secretarial
course at the Academy of Commerce and
Technical Studies. My secretarial diploma led
me to a position at a printing organization as
SecretarytotheManagingDirector. Itwasduring
this time that an opportunity opened in the
tourism field – an area that I was very interested
in, and I went to work as Group Manager for a
destination management company.
Following my position with the destination
management company, I immigrated to the
United States and spent the next 10 years there.
I worked with an import/export organization,in
Miami, as Executive Secretary to the President
andVice President. This organization turned out
to be a ‘home away from home’ as it was owned
and operated by West Indians making ‘big city’
life a bit ‘smaller’.
On returning to Barbados, I worked some
six years with a diverse company group, initially
with the administrative division, which evolved
tomanagementof theBeverageSystemsDivision.
It was during this time that I spent one year with
the Centre for Management Development of the
UWI and completed an Executive Diploma in
Human Resource Management.
In 2002, an opportunity opened for me to
return to the area of tourism, albeit in a very
different capacity and for the past seven years I
have worked in villa management for a privately
owned property on Barbados’ beautiful west
coast.
On the personal side,my interests continue
to focus around my family, keeping physically
healthy and my deep love for animals which is
reflected in our dogs and our pet bird - all rescued
in one way or another,and all very much a part of
our family and truly sources of great joy. My faith
in God and my personal relationship with my
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ play a paramount
role in my life. It is here that I find strength and
courage for the challenges of life,grace and peace
that truly pass all understanding in the midst
of life’s storms and thankfulness for the many
blessings in my life.
CSECClass
of1979

Earl Bennette
1979 is a year that has gone down in the
annals of St Vincent and the Grenadines history
as one of the most memorable for several
significant events.
The three major events that stuck in my
mind were the eruption of La Soufriere, the
introduction of CXC examinations in the
Caribbean and the Uprising in Union Island
(a Grenadine island). And then there was
the overthrow of the Gairy Government in
Grenada by the Maurice Bishop-led New Jewel
Movement.
My colleagues and I were‘preparing’for the
inaugural CXC examinations and had to contend
with these two traumatic events, which did our
preparation no good, particularly yours truly.
Our minds certainly were preoccupied with the
La Soufriere eruption which had disrupted our
lives and our main concern was survival.
The CXC examinations were thrust upon us
in 1978 when the Ministry of Education advised
the nation of the introduction of a Caribbean-
oriented examination.
I was in all honesty not too enthused;in fact,
my attitude was one of indifference.For the truth
be told, I like most of my contemporaries, that
the English- based GCE examinations were of a
far superior standard especially as it was coming
from a highly reputable university.
On the other hand,we were at best skeptical
of the CXC examination and deemed it to be an
experiment, with us being the ‘guinea pigs.’ We
were afraid that the examinations would not
stand the test of time and as a consequence we
would have been involved in a futile exercise.
Themanifestationof myindifferentposition
was borne out by the fact that subsequent to
registering for my lone offering - Geography- I
stopped attending Mrs Martin’s Geography
classes much to her charging.
Mrs Martin, however, did not give up on
me and was relentless in her efforts to convince
me to sit the examination, even if it meant that
I had to do it on my own, as she firmly believed
that I was doing an injustice to my mother, my
teacher, my alma mater and myself.
Her urgings coupled with that of my closest
friends led me to sit the examination albeit
armed with the unnerving knowledge that I
was inadequately prepared. I had done so with
one condition, that if I found the examination
beyond me, I was not going to do it as I was not
willing to suffer the indignity, humiliation and
embarrassment of failing .
On D-Day, I equipped myself with the
necessary tools and journeyed to the school to be
one of many persons across the Caribbean to sit
the historic CXC examinations.On perusing
the paper I was confident that I could attain
a passing grade, so I remained in the room
and did the Geography paper and obtained
a Grade II much to my relief and the delight
of my mom, teacher and friends.
After graduating from school,I worked
with the Central Water and Sewerage
Authority [CWSA].My association with this
institution lasted for six years.
I next entered the teaching profession
where I was assigned to the Calliaqua
Anglican School.During my long stint at this
school I pursued and attained the Teaching
Certificate at the Teachers’ College. I was
then transferred to the Sion Hill Government
School where I worked for two years.
My next port of call was the JP Eustace
Memorial Secondary in 2006 where I
am currently assigned as a Social Studies
Teacher.
Apart from my working life,I have been
and still am a community activist, a sport
administrator and a cultural organizer and
participant.
I have also had the distinct pleasure of
serving in several positions on the StVincent
and the Grenadines Football Federation of
which I am currently General Secretary.
My worst fears about the inaugural
examinations were unfounded,as evidenced
by the fact that the Council has grown from
strength to strength and 30 years after stands
tall in the Caribbean landscape.
Happy 30th Anniversary and long live
CXC and CSEC!
Kathy-Ann Walkes nee
Cadogan
Queen’s College - Barbados
I had the privilege of being one of the first
persons to write a Caribbean Examinations
Council (CXC) exam. This was in 1979 and
the subject was History. It was somewhat
challenging and different since we were not
accustomed to having our assignments (School
BasedAssessment) count towards our final exam
marks. But at the same time, I thought that this
was a big plus since,unlike the General Certificate
of Education (GCE), which is a one-shot exam,
you had the chance to go into the examination
with marks. Therefore, if you were having an
off day on the day of the exam, but you had a
good enough grade going into the exam, then
you would stand a good chance of success. I
think this has contributed to the success of CXC
examination over the years.
Since completing my studies at Queen’s
College in 1981,I entered UWI Cave Hill where I
pursued a degree inAccounting with Computing,
completing this programme in 1984 with
Honours. In June 1985, I started work at
Texaco where I held the position of Marine
Clerk for six months. In August 1985, I was
offered a position at IBM where I am still
currently employed. I have held various
positions at IBM including Distribution
Specialist and Systems Engineer. I am also
anAccredited Certified NovellAdministrator
(CNA) and Certified Novell Engineer
(CNE).
I have two children, Lisa aged 12 and
Christopher aged 9. My hobbies include
swimming, karate and squash.

Pauline Wolff
St Lucia
1979 for us marked a year of freedom;
freedom from the walls of St Joseph’s
Convent Secondary School where we spent
five long years (of course looking back now it
was indeed short) compared to now since we
are celebrating 30 years of leaving these walls
which shaped who and what we are today.
I recall being in form five when our
dearestPrincipalSrClaireaddressedusabout
CXC and the English exam. She went through
the grading system of I and II being passes for
General Proficiency.
One student blerted out “why are we the
‘guinea pigs?’What happens if we fail? How it will
affect us?” But these concerns were soon abated
since we were still doing the GCE subjects which
we were prepared (through the syllabus) to do.
I cannot recall all our grades, but I can
safely say that we did exceptionally well or we
would have recalled some negative reports in
the newspapers.
Today, because of my first daughter who
sat CSEC, I was introduced to a lot of the
other subjects such as Agricultural Science
and Information Technology and I was able
to appreciate, realize and recognize the direct
impact that CXC has on the Caribbean.
Comparing the days prior to CXC, I vividly
recall having to study European History (boy!!
do I remember how I tried to cram instead of
understanding). I was also able to compare
the subject areas that both she and I did like
Geography (oh what a difference!).
CXC has brought the Caribbean much
closer and has been able to fulfill its mission and
vision.The transition from GCE to CXC from my
limited knowledge looked like a smooth one and
Laverne Velox
Time really does fly. Thirty years
have elapsed and it seems like it was just
yesterday that I wrote the first CXC exams
under less than ideal conditions. The eruption
of the La Soufriere volcano on April 13, 1979
had disrupted the completion of the syllabus. I
remember having gone to St. Lucia to stay with
relatives for a while and missing classes.
Apart from that,the thought of a new exam
by Caribbean educators for Caribbean students
was not readily embraced by me. I worried
about whether the results would be accredited
by Colleges and Universities outside the region.
I also was apprehensive about the format – essay
and multiple choice questions.
I did not see myself as a pioneer charting
the course for future generations. I thought we
were guinea pigs for CXC being used for the‘trial
run’. Consequently, many of us wrote the same
subjects at CXC and GCE concurrently – just in
the event that CXC was not accredited.Back then,
a Grade III was not recognized as a pass! We had
to work hard for Grades I and II passes.
Thirty years later, CXC is alive and well
having metamorphosed into CSEC that my son
will write in 2010 but which I do not recognize
as the same exams I wrote in 1979.
All my initial fears about CXC were without
merit as it is now touted as one of the few
successes of Caribbean people working together
for the intellectual enrichment of the region.
In 1981 I joined the First St Vincent Bank
as a Savings Clerk and worked there until 1986
when I moved to NBC Radio 705. I spent two
years at NBC Radio. In 1988 I returned to the
First St Vincent Bank and moved through the
ranks to the post of Manager, the position I
currently occupy.
was embraced by all.
The Class of ‘79 from St Joseph’s Convent
continues to re-unite ever so often.We celebrated
our 25th Anniversary with a Church Service and
breakfast and we had the honor and pleasure
of having most of our teachers and families
with us.
This year, like CXC, we are planning quite
a number of activities to celebrate our 30th
Anniversary.In our midst we have a cross section
of professionals, ranging from doctors, lawyers,
nurses, bankers, business owners, agriculturists,
teachers and the list goes on.
CXC has empowered us to be more
independent and self reliant. It is through
that medium that programmes such as Young
Leaders which emerged from Trinidad came
into being. I had the honor and privilege of
serving as the Coordinator for St Lucia where
we saw young minds being positively shaped
into future leaders.
My colleagues and I wish to take this
opportunity to congratulate the Registrar and
the entire CXC for reaching this milestone. May
God continue to be your guide.
Happy 30th Anniversary CSEC!

Trudy Leonce-Joseph
St Lucia
This was truly a historic year in my life as
I had the privilege of witnessing the raising of
our national flag at midnight on February 22,
1979 during the ceremony on our attainment
of Independence. There were some memorable
events in my life during 1979 that included the
celebrations and fireworks on Independence
night in February, turning sweet sixteen and
immediately obtaining my driver’s license, and
writing the GCE O’ Level examinations and
the CSEC examinations offered by CXC for the
first time.
I particularly appreciate the significance
of being able to write the CXC examinations
in 1979. Academically, one of the top students
during my five years at the St. Joseph’s Convent,
I excelled in all subject areas (except Art and
Cookery).MysubjectsinFormFourwereEnglish
Language, English Literature, History, French,
Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
Since this was the first year of CXC, we also had
to write the English Language. Usually I never
worried about writing examinations; however,
inevitably the results of these exams at the end
of form five do determine a student’s future
irrespective of the performance during the past
five years of secondary school. I was nervous for
my very first GCE examination which was the
English Language. After that examination I had
a nagging feeling that I almost blanked out while
writing the essay and in general I knew my nerves
had gotten the better of me. There was no time
to dwell on that subject and I tackled the other
subjects over the next few weeks and did not have
any nerves or problems. I remember writing the
CXC English examination and I felt great after
and knew this was a better examination than the
GCE English.
My worse fear was confirmed with the
release of the GCE results a few weeks later. I
obtained one A, five B’s and one C in my other
subjects. For English Language I obtained a D.
This meant that despite my proven academic
ability, I did not have the required entry mark
in English Language to register at the Sir Arthur
Lewis Advanced Level College. I was mortified
and in shock. For about one to two weeks my
whole future was a blur. My future studies now
depended on my CSEC English Language Grade.
Finally the CXC results were released- I obtained
a Grade One. My family and I were so thankful
that CXC was introduced that year. I registered
for the Science courses at the Sir Arthur Lewis
College.
My tertiary education was completed at the
Universityof GuelphinCanadawhenIgraduated
with a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology in
1985.I pursued a career in Clinical Microbiology
and entered the field of Medical Laboratory
Technology. I worked in the private sector as a
Microbiology Medical Technologist at Medical
Laboratories in the Greater Toronto region from
1985 to 1993.
In May 1993, I returned to St Lucia
and was appointed as the Acting Laboratory
Superintendent (Manager) of the Ezra Long
Laboratory at the Victoria Hospital. During
my three years supervising this laboratory, I
registered with the University of the West Indies
Challenge Programme and obtained a
Certificate in Public Administration. After
three years in the public sector I got the
opportunity to manage a laboratory in the
private sector. I accepted the position of
Laboratory Manager at Laboratory Services
and Consultations Ltd.
I am currently in my 12th year as
Manager at Laboratory Services and
Consultations Ltd. During this period I
have attained a Graduate Certificate of
Achievement – Clinical Laboratory Quality
and Operational Management from The
Michener Institute for Applied Health
in Toronto Canada and a Postgraduate
Diploma in Business Administration from
the University of Leicester in England.
Ihavehadaninterestingandchallenging
career while balancing a well-rounded social
and family life. I am currently actively
involved in planning activities to celebrate
the St Joseph’s Convent’s Class of 1979 30th
Anniversary. I was therefore thrilled when
we were invited to provide our profile for
The Caribbean Examiner magazine and
CXC website.
In particular I felt this was a fitting
time for me to write as my 16-year-old son
is preparing to write his CSEC examinations
this year. In particular I commend the
CXC for the inclusion of the School Based
Assessments towards the final grading, as
based on my experience the consequence of
a nervous examination day can result in a
disappointing result.

The revised English B Syllabus for 2012 to
2017 examinations reintroduces the comparative
(Type B) question on two short stories. It also
replaces the comparative question on West
Indian and non-West Indian novels with a (Type
A) question on a single novel. Most teachers
would welcome this development, as successive
School Reports have bemoaned the fact that
candidates performed less than expected on the
comparative or theme questions. Realistically,
this task required candidates to apply higher
order skills: analysis, evaluation and synthesis to
their knowledge of two novels in approximately
40 minutes. These were quite advanced skills
for the 16-year-old age cohort. The new format
for testing students’ knowledge of Prose offers
exciting opportunities for extending the study
of English Literature to a wider cohort of our
students and honing their skills in literary
appreciation. Principals and the staff of English
Departments should plan from now to exploit
these opportunities.
Moreover,theRevisedSyllabusandSpecimen
Mark Scheme suggest overt encouragement of
diverse interpretations – a feature which runs
countertothepopular‘onecorrectinterpretation’
of set texts. They acknowledge the influence of
readers’ feelings as a significant component of
literary interpretation and appreciation. These
new developments should lead us to reorganise
the school’s Literature programme.
These syllabus changes should encourage
more vicarious recreations, greater discussion
and differing interpretations of how artists try to
influence our feeling.These discussions,based on
the carefully selected prescribed texts will, over
time,expandourvocabularyof feelingsandfoster
the development of our emotional intelligence,
ultimately leading to the affective skills and
values expected of ‘the Ideal Caribbean Person.’
Controversial texts have the greatest potential
to foster these outcomes, but it is the school and
the teacher’s careful choice and treatment of texts
that have the greatest impact.
Some schools have avid readers as students,
who may want to read all prescribed texts and
then make a choice of what they will study
for examination. There are other schools with
struggling readers whose teachers select the text
for the students. There we have an obligation to
read all the novels and make a determination
after considering the characteristics of our
learners. Such students may even need to hear
our repeated dramatic oral reading to understand
what is involved in reading for pleasure. We
must select the text that is most appropriate for
our students to display their skills in literary
appreciation.
We must gauge the text’s potential to excite
our students, and should be wary of the belief
that we do students a favour by selecting ‘easy’
texts with which they do not connect. Fostering
the intimate connection between student and
text is our goal.
Class discussions with subsequent projects
and assignments generate this personal
connection. These discussions and assignments
must go way beyond the anticipated examination
questions and marking schemes. Rather,
in the sacred space of our classrooms, we
must be open minded, confident and mature
enough to encourage students to offer personal
interpretations and responses to the events of
the texts and challenge them to provide textual
and experiential evidence in support of their
interpretations. Authors relate many crucial
events not through direct explanation but
through inference. Argument over the different
interpretations forces students to closely read
the texts and gain intimate knowledge of it,
which is eventually reflected in their examination
responses. Using this strategy with the short
stories first will pay significant dividends.
Studying short stories prepares students
to understand the writer’s craft in a novel, and
in general it has the potential to heighten our
students’ sensitivity to how writers manipulate
words and form to influence our feelings and
achieve their effects.
In planning the scheme of work, we may
recognise that we just do not have the time to
devote a session to each story. If so, we need
to select the short story that we can gain the
maximum benefit from close study so that
students can apply the skills and competencies
to their independent reading and study of the
other selections. Individual teacher style and
interest will be the major determinant in this
choice. Thereafter, we need to consider how the
students can use the time to show their emerging
mastery in application of these competencies.
In doing so, students will chart the comparisons
and contrasts in authors’treatment of technique
and theme.
We should be wary of using merely logical
or common sense criteria for the sequence in
the text, World of Prose. The editors warned
that they did not have any organising principle
in their sequencing of the stories. Stories for
sophisticated readers are placed before those
which are accessible to wider audiences.It would
also be dangerous to assume that the shortest
stories are the easiest.
Some teachers or departments may decide
to link the stories to events in the calendar,
for example, to introduce ‘Septimus’ around
Christmas time, or ‘The Boy Who Loved Ice
Cream’around Harvest time.Others may see and
use the potential of Literature to make a direct
contribution to the lives of the students,through
bibliotherapy.
Thestoriesmayalsobesequencedaccording
to formal elements of the short story form.
There are stories where the point of view from
which they are told carries the weight of their
meaning.
We may also select from, these approaches
in sequencing the set poems from A World
of Poetry. In the final analysis, our Literature
programme should excite our students and foster
appreciation and understanding of writers’craft
that adroitly manipulate our minds and feelings.
The prescribed texts for 2012 -2017 give us
ample resources to do this (see pages 28-30 of
the syllabus, CXC 01/G/SYLL 09).
We must gauge the text’s potential to excite our students, and should be wary of the
belief that we do students a favour by selecting ‘easy’ texts with which they do not
connect. Fostering the intimate connection between student and text is our goal.
CXC NEWS
SELECTING TEXTS FOR 2012 – 2017 AND
SEQUENCING THE SHORT STORIES FOR TEACHING
the revised English B Syllabus
By Martin Jones

TEXTS PRESCIBED FOR THE
2012 - 2014 EXAMINATIONS
DRAMA
Four Questions will be set
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
William Shakespeare
Old Story Time
Trevor Rhone
POETRY
Two Questions will be set
Selections from World of Poetry (New Edition)
Hazel Simmons-McDonald and Mark McWatt
PROSE FICTION
Novel
Four Type A questions will be set.
West Indian Songs of Silence
Curdella Forbes
The Wine of Astonishment
Earl Lovelace
Short Story
Two Type B Questions
will be set from the ten named short stories
A World of Prose for CXC
David Williams
Hazel Simmons-McDonald
TEXTS PRESCRIBED FOR THE
2015 – 2017 EXAMINATIONS
DRAMA
Four Type A Questions will be set
Julius Caesar
William Shakespeare
The Lion and the Jewel
Wole Soyinka
POETRY
Two Type B Questions will be set
Selections from World of Poetry (New Edition)
Hazel Simmons-McDonald and Mark McWatt
PROSE FICTION
Novel – Four Type A questions will be set.
Frangipani House
Beryl Gilroy
Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe
Short Story - Two Type B questions
will be set from the ten named short stories.
A World of Prose for CXC
David Williams
Hazel Simmons-McDonald
The Caribbean Examinations Council
(CXC) is now an Affiliate of the Jamaica
Copyright Licensing Agency (JAMCOPY).
Mr Glenroy Cumberbatch, Pro Registrar of
CXC signed the Affiliation Agreement 23
April at a ceremony hosted by JAMCOPY
at the Jamaica Trade and Invest Office in
Kingston. JAMCOPY is a Collective Rights
Agency which manages the reproductive
rights of its members and issues licences
to third parties to copy the work of right
holders.
JAMCOPY also acts on its rights
holders’ behalf to prevent infringements of
their rights, including taking legal action
against violators. In 2005, CXC registered its
logo, its name and its abbreviation, and the
names of all its examinations as Trademarks
to protect the integrity of the Council and its
examinations. Last year, to further assert its
ownershipof theTrademarks,CXCpublished
an Intellectual Property Policy which governs
the use of the Council’s Trademarks.
“The Council is systematically
considering the steps required for protecting,
managing and enforcing its IP so as to avoid
confusion in the market, ensure quality,
and realize commercial results from its IP
ownership,” the CXC IP Policy states.
“The move to become an Affiliate
of JAMCOPY re-enforces the Council’s
seriousness about protecting its Intellectual
Property and preventing violations of its
copyright works.,” explained Dr Didacus
Jules, CXC Registrar.“This will also protect
the Council by ensuring that its name
and image are not falsely associated with
unauthorized products and services.”
As a member of JAMCOPY CXC will
enjoy several benefits. These include better
management of the amount of copying
that is done so that sales of its published
works are not jeopardised by extensive
illegal photocopying; CXC is assured of
remuneration from the licence fees collected
from users; and CXC also benefits from
international protection of its works through
JAMCOPY’s bilateral agreements with
licensing agencies in other countries.
CXC Joins JAMCOPY
Mr Glenroy Cumberbatch, CXC Pro Registrar (centre) signing JAMCOPY Affiliation
Agreement as Ms Carol Newman Manager of JAMCOPY (left) and Ms Shirley Carby,
Chairman of JAMCOPY (right) look on

The CXC Examiner - Celebrating 30 years of CSEC

The CXC Examiner - Celebrating 30 years of CSEC

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Tendances

Tendances (17)

Plus de Caribbean Examinations Council

Plus de Caribbean Examinations Council (20)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

The CXC Examiner - Celebrating 30 years of CSEC