The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has granted an extension for the submission of School-based Assessments (SBAs) for some students in Jamaica who will sit the June/July 2021 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations.

Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Fayval Williams, said

that the students who will benefit from the extension are those sitting industrial technology, home economics and science-based subjects that will require them to be in school to get their lab work completed.

“We did petition CXC after we got lots of letters, phone calls about the SBAs. We asked for an extension of the deadline,” Minister Williams said.

She informed that CXC, in its letter to the Ministry granting the extension, said that at this stage, given the challenges, it will facilitate a phased submission of SBAs.

“That is, the submission deadline of June 18 will be retained for the research subjects, while submissions for the practical subjects will be on June 30. No penalty will be attached to the extension,” she outlined.

Minister Williams advised that as soon as the SBAs are completed for any given subject, they should be submitted to avoid a bottleneck at the deadline date of June 30.

For his part, Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, CXC, Dr. Wayne Wesley, reiterated the Minister’s call for persons who have already completed their SBAs to upload them.

He said that the extension “will likely impact what will obtain as it relates to the final grades being prepared and released on time,” but “we are hoping to follow through with those SBAs that are completed early… so that we don’t all wait until June 30 and create a bottleneck that creates other logistical challenges”.

The purpose of the town hall was to discuss issues surrounding the preparations for the upcoming external examinations.