The January 2026 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations, which were administered in full electronic and hybrid formats, have been hailed as a “landmark achievement” that “demonstrated that digital examinations delivery is not only viable, it is the future” of the region.

That conclusion was delivered by Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) registrar and CEO Dr Wayne Wesley during a virtual press conference on Friday to discuss the results of those examinations.

“Students across the Caribbean are ready for E-examinations and CXC is ready to meet the moment,” Wesley said. “The initial feedback from our students, candidates, who, in the vast majority are digital natives, has been very positive. Living and operating in the digital domain comes naturally for our students. We must design learning assessments that are congruent and align with how they process knowledge and learn and improve new and existing competencies,” Wesley told the press conference.

According to the CXC head, there were also “positive experiences from the countries where these examinations were conducted with both electronic and hybrid delivery”.

Noting that this did not mean “there weren’t any challenges or room for improvement” Wesley assured that “none of these issues compromised the integrity of the January 2026 examinations”.

“Where operational issues arose, they were addressed swiftly at the centre level and, with support from ministries of education, IT administrators, and technicians are in direct collaboration with CXC. Be assured that in all cases where examinations delay occurred… in all cases submitted for compassionate consideration… no candidate will be adversely penalised as a result of the irregularities that were outside CXC’s or their control,” he said.

“I can therefore confidently report to all our stakeholders that, despite the scale and novelty of this undertaking, the 2026 examinations were carried out successfully. This process is truly a success, thanks to the entire CXC team, in particular the hard-working members of the examinations administration division, which gives us the momentum into May-June examinations. The success demonstrated that digital examinations delivery is not only viable, it is the future of our Caribbean,” he added.

According to CXC, 10,481 candidates sat examinations across 17 Caribbean States, for a total of 17,695 subject entries. Those examinations ran from January 5 to January 29, 2026 — four days longer than the 2025 schedule — to accommodate the new electronic delivery modality for high volume subjects such as mathematics and English. Also, in recognition of the devastating impact Hurricane Melissa had on Jamaica last October, CXC granted special humanitarian considerations to affected schools.

A total of 708 subject entries across 29 centres, representing approximately four per cent of the total entries, were permitted to complete examinations using the traditional paper-based method.

“This covers 12 CSEC subjects and reflects our commitment to equity and compassion in the face of natural disasters,” Wesley stated Friday.

Meanwhile, CXC’s Director of Operations Dr Nicole Manning said the data from the sitting have taught the organisation that “real-time incident logging enabled same-day resolution at the centre level”.

“Everything did not work perfectly, but we were able to reset them, and that speaks to the resilience of the region. We had a full audit trail of every single candidate, ensuring that they were compensated for time lost, given the fact that there were exams that may have started a bit late,” she said, adding that “the hybrid delivery produced comparable outcomes to the traditional way of operating in terms of the paper-based”.

“And we would say that validated this model, what we call the hybrid e-assessment model. The digital natives performed with confidence, and our assumptions about their readiness were confirmed by data. So we are confident that, as we saw in terms of the overall performance of the candidates, that the candidates performed just as well as they would have performed in previous years,” Manning said further.

Turning to the results, she said “Nine of the 13 subjects administered within this period saw great increases”.

“It is noteworthy that, while mathematics saw a general slight increase of about one per cent, it’s not as good as what we would want to see,” she said.

However, Manning said that some subjects saw massive increases of almost 100 per cent. She pointed to social studies, which had an increase to 62 per cent, moving from 51 per cent in the previous year.

“I’ll also say, for English A, 70.7 per cent over the 61.25 per cent in the previous year,” she said, adding that there were also increases in the passes for chemistry and biology, as well as physics, compared to the previous year.

“Similar to social studies, we saw almost a 50 per cent increase for physics, and this is telling us that there is some due diligence being done, not only by the candidates, but, of course, their parents, and we want to say congratulations to them,” Manning stated.

In the meantime, Manning — who last year reported 80 irregularities, including instances of collusion in the May-June CSEC exams — said there were none in the January sitting.

“We are praying and hoping that the May-June sitting will have no irregularities and that speaks to the fact that this approach may be the way to go… it therefore means that if it is that we are successful in January, and we see issues in May-June, it is telling us an indication of where we need to go,” she said.

In the meantime, CXC remains concerned about the level of non-attendance at exams.

“The absenteeism for this session is still an area of concern for CXC and, of course, for the region. Although we saw a big reduction for office administration in particular, we are still encouraging the region, because for every student who registers for an exam but who does not turn up, it means that you have missed the opportunity of performing and missed the opportunity of achieving,” Manning pointed out.

Urging candidates to “at least turn up”, Manning said: “We want to encourage that for those candidates sitting exams in May-June, please. If even if it is that you’re feeling unprepared, we are encouraging you, and we are saying that you may be more prepared than you realise. So it’s important just to show up,” she said.