PM shocked over CXC bill for deferred exams

THE CARIBBEAN Examinations Council (CXC) has slapped the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines(SVG) with a bill of almost EC$700,000 for costs related to the conduct of delayed examinations here.

Expressing shock at the amount of the bill during his Wednesday morning segment on NBC Radio on Wednesday, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves said he received the documentation the day before from Minister of Education Curtis King, and wanted to talk about it publicly.

“Nah, this is ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous,” the Prime Minister commented.

“That number can’t be the real number. That is an inflated number of some kind!

“Heavenly father, $516,000 Bajan dollars?” he queried, adding, “Nah man, no, no, no, in dis ya time?”

Gonsalves said he would like to go through the entire auditing process and disclosed that he had also contacted the Chairman of CXC Professor Hilary Beckles on the matter.

Because of the disruption caused by the eruptions of La Soufriere in April this year, Vincentian students were allowed to sit CXC administered examinations later than other students in the region and were assessed only on Paper 1 (multiple choice) in addition to School Based Assessments (SBA). Their counterparts in other parts of the region wrote Papers 1 and 2, plus SBAs.

The Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations in SVG commenced on August 2 and concluded on August 20, while the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) begin on August 16 and ran through to September 3.

CXC said in a release in September that it would release results for the June/July 2021 examinations to candidates in SVG on or before October 20, 2021. However October 20 has come and gone without the release of results.

It is not known if the delay is associated with the bill Gonsalves spoke about on radio.

Candidates in other parts of the region received their results on Friday, October 15.