THE Ministry of Education is no longer offering the Caribbean Certification in Secondary Level Competence (CCSLC) examination, after failing to see returns on its $97-million investment in the exams since 2008.

“There has been high levels of absenteeism and extremely low pass rates during this period. In 2008, only 66 per cent of students registered sat the examination. In 2009, only 63 per cent of those who registered sat CCSLC. The rate of absenteeism therefore has been over one-third of the subject entries,” the ministry said in a press release Friday, which gave notice of its decision.

“On the matter of certification, only three students (0.1 per cent) passed in 2008/2009 while 52 students (0.4 per cent) passed and achieved certification in 2009/2010,” it added.

Beyond that, the ministry said that the requirements of the exams were not being met by the majority of students, with only two per cent of them sitting the minimum five subjects needed to qualify for certification. In addition, the failure of teachers to submit their assessment grades has led to 10 per cent of students who did the examination not receiving a grade.

“In the final analysis, it is clear that the ministry of education is not getting value for its investment due to the consistently high incidence of absenteeism and low rates of certification in the CCSLC,” the release noted.

As such, the ministry has recommended that all students be encouraged to register to sit the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate Examinations beginning in April 2012. Further, the ministry suggested that students who were pursuing the CCSLC path for this year and are not deemed ready to sit CSEC by the school, should register to sit the Caribbean Vocational Qualification and National Vocational Qualification of Jamaica examinations.

“The ministry also endorses the City and Guilds mathematics and English examinations at this time and therefore students may register for these examinations. This allowance is only being made for this school year as the students would have already gone through one year of CCSLC preparation,” the release said.

“The Career Advancement Programme (CAP) team will be working directly with the schools to assist in identifying those students who will need additional support and start preparing them for transition to CAP,” it added.