BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — The Barbados-based Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) says it is repositioning itself to become more responsive to the needs of the region as thousands of students on Tuesday began writing examinations.

“Ladies and gentlemen, much is expected of CXC and we will not shrink back into what we have to do, but instead we will move courageously and boldly in shaping and transforming education within the region,” said the CXC’s Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Dr Wayne Wesley.

He told a news conference that in order to be successful, “We know we will have to listen more to our stakeholders.”

“This is a defining posture of the new CXC. We will listen, we will engage and work with all our stakeholders, our parents, our students, our governments, policymakers, teachers, educators and all our regional and international partners for greater regional impact.”

The announcement of the new initiative coincides with the official start of the traditional May-June examinations, set up by CXC, which was established in 1972 under an agreement by the participating governments in the Caribbean Community (Caricom). It provides regional and internationally recognised secondary school leaving examinations relevant to the needs of the region; and assists in common entrance and other types of examinations.

“We are pleased to announce that for this 2025 examination period, over 100,000 candidates from across the region have been registered to sit more than 600,000 subject entries. This will be another mammoth undertaking by CXC, but we are equal to the task. The team has worked hard to ensure everything is in place for the successful administration of the examinations,” Wesley told reporters.

He said CXC is repositioning and it marks “the beginning of our transformation effort…and this is the beginning of the end of the Caribbean Examinations Council as you know it, as we transform for greater regional impact”.

Wesley noted that as the unique certifying body for secondary education within Caricom, CXC is seized with the imperative to engage its own organisational renewal to provide the required leadership and support for education transformation in the region.

He said since December 2023, CXC has been engaged in a comprehensive strategic repositioning exercise in “what is the beginning of the end of the old CXC”.

“This comprehensive strategic repositioning is about transforming for greater relevance and sustainability,” Wesley shared, adding that it encompasses three main elements, including the modernisation of the governance system involving a review of CXC’s articles of agreement to include expanded stakeholder representation, enhancing accountability, relevant expertise and prudent oversight to ensure adherence to policy mandate.

He said the organisational redesign of the CXC is intended to make the examination body “fit for purpose” and “what this means is CXC transforming for greater relevance, sustainability to achieve organisational agility…responding quickly and effectively to unpredictable events”.

According to Wesley, the third element of the repositioning is reimagining assessment and certification.

“This calls for the recalibration and refocus of the council’s system of assessment and certification, embracing flexible and progressive learning and competency-based education in alignment with economic and social transformation,” he said.

He told reporters that there will also be a redesign of the CXC qualifications to achieve the optimal balance between content coverage and the acquisition of skills to the various approaches of current and future employment skills demands, as well as the modernisation of syllabuses.

“This is a new development in CXC as we seek to become more flexible and responsive to the needs of the region and so a new qualification has been developed…and within this construct the learner is at the focus of what we are treating with.

“In that regard we have recognised that there are multiple options. You have advanced gifted students, who can take the accelerated track and those who can do so through a compressed programme.

“We also recognise there are the typical students who will take the general track, completing the programme in a specified period of time as in most of our syllabuses, two years, and then you will have the individualised individual who will need a flexible track and extended programme time to treat with and absorb the content,” Wesley explained.

The registrar said in recognising the three competencies of the learner, it will lead to a new qualification by CXC that will be at the same standard of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE), utilising the same syllabus, focusing on related and relevant learning outcomes and provides for progressive achievements of competencies.

He said the Caribbean Targeted Education Certificate (CTEC), which will be non-terminal, will be “our micro-credential and will be awarded to students who successfully achieve a module”.

“Then this will lead into our intermediate credentials…which will be awarded to those who achieve a defined module subjects…with the macro-credentials being given to those students successfully achieving a prescribed set of subjects and or modules,” Wesley said.