BVI : Local CXC Registrar Gillian Douglas-Phillips has said the community has shown a lack of interest in the CXC examination while noting that overseas universities are increasingly asking for the regional exam certificates as a requirement to enter their institutions.
“Just recently, parents have been calling to ask about CXC. Students have not been showing up for CXC exams and it seems that this visit by CXC officials is very timely because it would help to sensitize the community to what CXC is all about, ” Douglas-Phillips told the media at a press conference on May 29.
She said this year the department has been receiving calls from different universities in England and in the US asking for student’s CXC certificates.
“…because of our present education system, which we are really trying to improve and we will improve, we realise the importance that CXC now plays in our students getting into these universities,” she said.
Douglas-Phillips noted that last year only 150 of the 262 public high school graduates sat the CXC examination.
“The few that usually do CXC usually do well especially in math and language, as we have seen over the last couple of years among OECS countries,” she added.
“We are hoping that the visit by our CXC officials will help the community to recognise the importance of CXC. It will help the ministry to be able to push its mandate forward and our students will be able to become global citizens who are productive in the society,” the BVI CXC registrar said.
She added that the reluctance in relations to the examination on the local level is presently due to the lack of knowledge on the part of the parents.
“I can say that because just a few weeks ago a few parents called to ask what are CXC exams…. The students are being registered for CXC and they have no idea what these things are. I am talking about educating parents who probably went through a different system that was not our regional system.”
“We have been hit with a number of concerns from US universities ask for certificates from the Caribbean Examinations Council, that is what they want…. CXC is more internationally recognised; it is what counts,” she added.
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