THE Opposition People’s National Party is insisting that the Education Ministry is the body with the remit to postpone, cancel, reschedule or resit CSEC and CAPE examinations and not the regional body, the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) as has been said.

Calls for the postponement, cancellation or rescheduling of the exams, which are ongoing, have gathered speed over the last few days in light of this week’s violence across sections of the Corporate Area triggered by confrontations between lawmen and criminals trying to prevent the arrest of Tivoli don Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.

Since Sunday, when the armed forces moved in and Tuesday when school resumed, students in Western Kingston and surrounding communities have been diverted from their originally designated centres because of the violence.

In other cases, students were unable to leave their homes or make it to the centres given the pulling of transportation services from the various routes in the city, which was on a virtual lockdown. Ten of the 65 centres in the Corporate area were affected by the violence and had to be relocated.

But yesterday, Opposition spokesman on education Senator Basil Waite said independent investigations have confirmed that it is also possible for students to resit examinations before the reported January 2011 date as reported in the media, and that these results can be made available within a period of two to four months of the decision to postpone exams.

“Amidst the confusion that continues to reign regarding examination venues and schedules, and the uncertainty being experienced by students and parents, the Opposition calls on the Minister of Education Andrew Holness to publish a bulletin in the local newspapers and tabloids clearly detailing all the options available to the affected students,” Senator Waite said.

He went on to urge the “Government to clearly communicate to students and families the various contingency arrangements that have been made for those sitting examinations in the Corporate Area”.

He said the administration should in this situation accept that crisis communication is mandatory during this period of uncertainty, and also establish a hotline to facilitate students and families who require vital information regarding examination centres, and remedies for students who have missed exams or have sat exams in sub-optimal conditions (violence and tension).

In the meantime the Bridgetown Barbados-based Caribbean Examinations Council yesterday said it is committed to working with the Jamaican Government to find the best solution for candidates affected by the recent upsurge in violence.

It insisted that the Council has established procedures which have been used in many cases where candidates experience hardship or adverse circumstances before and during the examinations.

“These include statistical procedures which allow us to undertake a comparative analysis of candidate performance, teachers’ estimation of the expected grades of candidates, and a review of the candidates’ performance on components of the examinations already completed including the school-based assessment,” the statement added.

The Council said it has noted the proactive measures taken by the Overseas Examinations Commission/Ministry of Education to facilitate the writing of the examinations by candidates from the affected areas.

When contacted yesterday, Education Minister Andrew Holness said he was confident the decision to route students from the 10 directly affected centres to the other 55 or so centres, instead of cancelling the exams, spelled sense.

“The Ministry of Education always has the prerogative to postpone an exam, that point was never in debate. CXC has advised that there are remedies that can be applied in the circumstances that presently affect Jamaica,” Holness said.

“You would only use the resit option when the exam is compromised, meaning the paper was leaked or there was widespread cheating or the paper itself had errors. People are saying it’s very easy to set another paper. It is not,” he added

WAITE… we want the education minister to publish all the options available to the affected students

HOLNESS… the Ministry of Education always has the prerogative to postpone an exam