Head of the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools (JAPSS) Anniona Jones says the Caribbean Examinations Council’s (CXC) overhaul of School-Based Assessments (SBAs) is necessary to protect academic integrity, but believes it is possible that pass rates could decline initially as students adapt to the new system. Speaking with the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday, Jones said principals understand why CXC has moved to reform one of the Caribbean’s longest-standing assessment methods, arguing that the integrity of students’ work must be protected even as schools adapt to new technologies. However, she cautioned that the transition will require significant adjustments by teachers and students, particularly in subjects for which coursework has long been used to develop critical thinking and contribute to final grades.
Last week, CXC announced that traditional SBAs will be phased out for several non-practical subjects, including mathematics, English, Caribbean history, social studies, as well as principles of business. Those subjects will instead be assessed through paper 032, which students will complete under examination conditions after receiving the assessment topics about a month in advance. Practical disciplines such as agricultural science, visual arts, technical drawing, music, physical education, and food, nutrition and health will retain SBAs because they require students to demonstrate practical competencies that cannot be adequately measured in a written examination.
Jones said principals were encouraged that CXC had retained project-based assessments in practical and technical subjects and had preserved opportunities to assess higher-order thinking in other areas through the redesigned paper 032. “We understand the ‘why’ behind it. Some persons are still concerned that with AI not going anywhere, that the removal of the school-based or project-based learning across subjects may send the wrong signal that what we were hoping to assess by the SBA we still can’t assess using another modality, and that’s not the case.
So we were very happy to hear that the paper three format and the skill sets that we really want to evaluate, to some degree, will still be able to be evaluated in those traditional grammar-based subjects,” she said. She said the reforms were also necessary because concerns about the authenticity of SBAs extend beyond AI, acknowl…
Summary from source