KINGSTON, Jamaica – OBSERVER ONLINE understands that there was an administrative glitch in the May/June Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) Mathematics paper, which has left some students and parents on edge.

Media reports out of Barbados are that students were left flustered after realising that the Mathematics paper in this year’s exams were incorrectly numbered, however the Barbados-based examination body said that there was no need for concern, as the problem would not affect their grades.Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator Ruel Reid told OBSERVER ONLINE that the ministry did receive a few reports and the matter was referred to CXC for action.Media reports said a student out of Barbados was left distraught when he came out of the examination room, saying he did not complete the paper because it was “numbered incorrectly”.The parent of the child said “It was out of order, and when he put up his hand to ask the invigilator a question she asked him if he was slow. So I contacted parents that I know who had students also did it [wrote the Math paper] from other schools and everybody had the same thing that the paper was in a mess”.“It got him frustrated because to get settled it took him about half hour before he could start the paper. The instruction was in the middle of the booklet, then it would ask you to do two questions from section two and because it didn’t start with number one you don’t know if that comes from 1b or 2b or 3,” she explained, adding that the CXC referred her to the Ministry of Education when she called to inquire about the problem.In a response to Barbados TODAY, CXC acknowledged that there have been “some issues” with the administration of some of its examinations during the May/June 2017 sitting.However, it assured “all concerned that no candidate will be disadvantaged as a result of any issue with the administration of any of the CXC examinations.“CXC further assures the region that it will take the necessary steps to ensure all candidates receive the grade earned for each examination taken. CXC’s robust measurement and evaluation policies and procedures will be applied to maintain the integrity of the examinations, and irregularities and hardship considerations will be applied in circumstances where warranted.”