GLENROY Cumberbatch, pro registrar, Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), has reiterated that Jamaica stands to benefit greatly from the Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence (CCSLC) examinations, if educators and institutions take the offerings and certification of that external examination more seriously.

According to Cumberbatch, since the CCSLC programme was launched for participating Caribbean states, there has been a fluctuation in the reception the council has received with regards to the CCSLC in Jamaica.

“In 2007, the CCSLC was designed at the request of the participating countries, including Jamaica, for use in the countries. In 2011, the numbers fell off in Jamaica sharply, because it was no longer funded by the Government. After review and discussion with stakeholders, it is now being offered again in schools in Jamaica in 2013,” Cumberbatch told Career & Education following a stakeholders seminar for journalists hosted by CXC at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston on April 25.

“Quite a few of the schools are pushing for it, especially the upgraded high schools,” Cumberbatch added.

In 2007, CXC launched CCSLC in participating territories. The curriculum was created in response to a regional imperative to provide universal secondary level education to students across the Caribbean.

A candidate will be awarded CCSLC certification if he/she, over a period of up to three years, successfully completes a minimum of five subjects, including the two compulsory subjects, English language and mathematics.

The CCSLC responds to the changing demands of education and is designed to certify the knowledge, generic competences, attitudes and values that all secondary school leavers have attained.

“For all students, including Jamaican students, the CCSLC tries to develop the foundation on which you build for your CSEC and your CAPE subjects… and for any other work related qualifications you go for in terms of your communication, your mathematics skills, your scientific skills, your interpersonal skills and so on. It really gives you good grounding,” Cumberbatch said.

He said Jamaica will benefit from the CCLSC programme if they have faith in the recognition and value the examination offers to those who partake.