NATIONAL Secondary Students’ Council President Dannyelle-Jordan Bailey is calling on Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) officials to quickly update students who sat the 2023 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate mathematics paper two examination Wednesday on steps being taken to ensure fairness in grading amid allegations of a leak.

Bailey, in an interview with the Jamaica Observer, pointed out that the allegations of a leak came as no surprise to students as “it’s something that happens every year in Caribbean countries that are claimed to be ‘favoured’ by CXC”. She, however, said that what students are concerned about is that, despite allegations of there being a leak, there is no word from the examinations governing body with regards to how it will approach grading of the papers.

“With allegations of it [mathematics exam] being leaked, it makes the curve harder for students to get the [grade] one. It also puts that fear in students to say since they’ve already got access to the exams, they can go over it and get all the answers right, so what are the chances of me now getting the grade one, considering the score is dependent on the curve. We haven’t heard anything to say something is going to be done to ensure there is equity in terms of students’ performance on the exam,” Bailey argued.

“It’s sad to know it’s something that happens every single year. Despite it being a yearly occurrence, nothing has changed. It’s just something that students expect to happen in certain Caribbean countries where there is access to the exam prior to the examination and nothing is done to ensure that the exam can be changed,” she added.

According to highly placed education sources, the leak occurred in Guyana and quickly spread to other parts of the region. Sources say examination officials were in meetings to decide on whether there will be a resit.

Bailey called for CXC to completely digitise the exams — while ensuring all students have access and digital literacy for the exams — to strengthen its integrity and avoid such occurrences, if the allegations prove true in the future.

“I feel as if there is a lot more security in that regard. It’s very old that we still have to be signing documents to ensure that the bag of papers is sealed, people still have to be bearing witness…the bag can easily be resealed; it doesn’t take that much technology to reseal a bag. So I think the complete digitisation of the CXC exams could add that level of cybersecurity to ensure that what you see on the exam it’s the first time you’re seeing it and you wouldn’t have had access to it prior to that,” she said.

Jamaican officials were on Wednesday mum regarding the allegations.

When contacted by the Observer on Wednesday, Hector Stephenson, executive director at the Overseas Examinations Commission (OECS), said he was heading into a meeting and could not speak to the matter. He directed the news team to speak directly to CXC on the matter.

Meanwhile, CXC issued a statement on Wednesday afternoon saying it was aware of the concerns that the maths examination written on Wednesday, May 17 had been leaked, and the council had commenced its investigations into the matter.

Further, CXC said once the investigations are completed it will issue a definitive statement.

In the meantime, CXC told candidates to rest assured that the matter is being treated with the highest urgency.