A Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) official on Friday reported “an all-time high of 80 irregularities” among students who sat the May-June external examinations this year and has appealed to education ministries and parents across the region to impress on students the importance of honesty.

“Whether it be cellphone or otherwise, they vary, and it’s important to note that this year we saw an all-time high of 80 irregularities; not good, not good,” CXC Director of Operations Dr Nicole Manning lamented at the official ceremony to mark the release of the May/June 2025 CSEC results in the Cayman Islands.

“It therefore means that these candidates, of the 80, may have different penalties, and I can tell you, majority of these candidates… for over 40 to 50 per cent of them, would have their results cancelled. So it means that they are found in the exam with a cellphone for example… that candidate’s result is cancelled,” Manning said.

She said despite entreaties, some students have still tried to trick the system.

“We beg, we plead, we say ‘do not take it in the exam’. We also have situations where candidates use the cellphones. They’ll tell you that, ‘Oh, I can’t find the answer. I didn’t remember the answer, so I Googled it.’ And so those candidates, the results for them are not only cancelled, but it affects their other subjects. In fact, they’re disqualified,” she told those in attendance.

According to Dr Manning, smart watches are now also becoming part of the equation.

“It’s no longer just the phone. And we do know that and are conscious that other aspects will come into play eventually like the [smart] glasses and so on. And so with that consciousness we have changed it from cellphones to unauthorised devices widening the gap of what is not required for the exams,” she said.

The CXC director of operations said there were also other issues during the sittings such as ‘unruly conduct, misuse of material and collusion’.

“Collusion was a big one this year. If you notice the jump from collusion for CXC from one [incident] to eight. That means we are cheating, right? [They were, in instances] working together, where candidates drop the paper on the ground and the person next door knows that he must pick it up and so on and so forth. These are just examples of what unfortunately happens in the exams,” Manning outlined.

She said for the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) there was also an “increase in the use of unauthorised devices”.

“CAPE was not as much — similar in movement in terms of the cheating, but it was not as much. And it may speak to the fact that they are a little bit more mature, or it may speak to the cohort because it’s a smaller group,” she said.

According to Manning, CXC had rejoiced in past years when the levels of cheating diminished, but now, she said, “We are seeing a spike again”.

“So it is something we are encouraging the ministries of education to work with our students. Parents, please, they should not even have the cellphone on them; you know we beg and plead every year but it is something that’s important. I cannot end this component of my presentation without encouraging the ethical use and the whole notion of integrity as you engage in the process,” Manning said.

In the meantime, she said some candidates might have to wait longer for their results because of these irregularities.

“We do have some questionable situations that we’re investigating; situations where you see candidates with the same mistakes on a question on an exam that tells you that something happened. So these are things that we are still investigating. So when candidates do not see grades, please do not be surprised because the notification is sent to our local registrars and they will be aware to let you know,” Manning advised.

She also said CXC is unhappy with the issues surrounding the submission of School Based Assessments (SBAs) which form a component of the grades for certain subjects.

“School Based Assessment is a very key component of what is required for the candidates to submit. For CAPE… consistent with the fact that you had a reduction in the subject entries, we also saw a reduction in terms of the SBA candidate entries. You had 2.14 per cent of the students deciding not to submit SBAs to teachers… what does that mean? The candidate is going to be ungraded. Again, not a situation that we are really happy about,” she said.

Added Manning: “Sometimes we have the information, one component, whether it be the SBA or the scores, but we do not have the complete picture and that represented 0.88 per cent of the cohort for CXC”.

“For CSEC, likewise, similar in keeping with the trend of the increase of the subject entries, we had 441,154 candidates submitting their SBAs as required, but 3.01 per cent not submitting to the teachers at all. While it’s less than previous years, it’s still not where we want to go,” she stressed.

In the meantime, she said there were also concerns about absenteeism despite the increase in numbers for candidate and subject entries for some of the examinations.

“CXC is always concerned about this because, if a candidate is absent, it means that they are not going to receive a grade for even one component. So if it is that they’re absent for one component, they will not receive a grade. So it’s really difficult when you do all that work and you are missing for whatever reason. I must hasten to say, though, if it’s illness or death… or other issues we do have a consideration we call our compassionate consideration, but with evidence as to why the candidate would have been missing from the exam; then we take that into consideration and we actually grade the candidate,” Manning said.

“Even though we had 98,160 candidates registered for subject entries, we had 3,593 candidates absent across the various subject entries. Now, yes, this is a big improvement if you look at what happened in 2022 to 2025, but still not where we want it to be,” Manning emphasised.