TWO principals are hopeful that the Ministry of Education finds a meaningful solution for a steady return of physical schooling of students scheduled to sit major examinations.
The comments came after the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) released Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) and Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination results on Friday.
While they said they have not thoroughly analysed their respective results, adapting to online learning and its challenges that came contributed significantly.
Principal of Presentation College in San Fernando Dexter Mitchell said their results could have been much better if there were physical schooling.
“There are some students who did very well, I also saw evidence of students who were affected by the pandemic not performing well. I did see students affected by not being in school.
“While the students would have passed, the results could have been much better if there were face-to-face classes. At the CSEC level there was consistent performance, where 118 boys got five or more subjects,” he said.
Dexter said online challenges vary and it was not just looking at connectivity issues or lack of devices, but there were also socio-economic issues that needed to be taken seriously.
Despite the unexpected results, Dexter was hopeful for some scholarships and bursaries at the CAPE level.
[caption id="attachment_919287" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Queen's Royal College students head home after face-to-face classes in Port of Spaiin on October 14 - Photo by Roger Jacob[/caption]
The principal at Queen’s Royal College, David Simon, said while they were not able to compare last year and this year’s results as yet, their examination performances were mixed.
“We are seeing some good performances and we are seeing some performances that could have been better. The situation is what it is, but I think many of the boys and the teachers prefer to be out. The hybrid system is challenging.
“Like every other school in TT there was a bit more absenteeism than when there was regular physical schooling. I can't say if it increased from last year to this year,” Simon said.
On Thursday CXC reported a high level of absenteeism in the CSEC and CAPE examinations, throughout the region.
CXC director of operations Dr Nicole Manning on Thursday said 8.3 per cent and 11.23 per cent of students did not show up for their CAPE and CSEC examinations, respectively.
President of the TT Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) Antonia De Freitas via a WhatsApp message on Saturday said that, “The pandemic impacted students significantly. Countries need to decide what mechanisms they will put in place to analyse such and support students.”
A student from a school in east Trinidad, who wished to remain anonymous, said she was disappointed by her CSEC results and attributed it to a lack of practical learning opportunities.
She described herself as a hands-on learner rather than a note taker, and said her results for biology and chemistry, two of
