Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), Dr Wayne Wesley, discusses the role of the organisation as we embark upon the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and with regard to the future work. He also explains why although syllabi and testing modalities need to be carefully considered, teaching and the overall curricula must also be re-examined, in order to ensure that current and future students are optimally prepared for the evolving workplace.
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It is a known adage – be it in school or in life – that what gets assessed is what is given attention. In school, the topics that tend to be covered in examinations are likely to those that are taught in the classroom. It is with this premise in mind, and continuing our conversation on the future of work, that we begin to hone in on education, and its ability to shape not only the workforce, but also the lives and livelihood of citizens.
To that end, our approach might appear counterintuitive. We are starting with examinations because, to a considerable degree, it is the examinations – with its underlying syllabus and the modalities of assessment – that influence what is taught in the classrooms, along with the overarching curricula that schools follow.
It should thus not come as a surprise that a great source of pride to schools, and even countries, is based on students’ performance at millstone examinations in their academic lives, specifically,
- the Common Entrance or Grade 6 examinations, which facilitate students’ transition from primary to secondary school, and
- the Ordinary Level (O-Level) examination, which in many parts of the Caribbean is the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination, and is usually taken in Grade 11 OR Fifth Form.
Further, the results of those examinations tend to influence school ranking, and consequently, the extent to which a school is considered ‘good’ or high-performing, and whether it is a preferred choice by parents and students.
The Caribbean Examinations Council
The Caribbean Examinations Council is nearly 50 years old, and was established to conduct regional examinations. These examinations initially replaced the O-Level and Advanced Level (A-Level) examinations from the United Kingdom, and now includes tests at the primary school level, along with assessments at the vocational and associate’s degree levels.
Currently, CXC examinations are conducted in 16 Caribbean countries, namely, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and Turks and Caicos Islands. Examinations are held twice per year, in January and June, with the latter session being the more popular, in terms of the number of candidates and the attention its results receive.
Dr Wayne Wesley
Our guest: Dr Wayne Wesley
Dr Wayne Wesley is the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the CXC. Originally from Jamaica, Dr Wesley spent the last 25 years working regionally and internationally in education and training. His professional experience spans industrial engineering, technical education, consulting, strategic leadership and executive management.
Prior to joining CXC, Dr Wesley was the Executive Director of the Human Employment and Resource Training Trust/ National Training Agency (HEART Trust/NTA) in Jamaica. He was also the Chairman of the Caribbean Association of National Training Authorities (CANTA), and was a Senior Lecturer and the Programme Director for the Industrial Engineering Programme at the University of Technology in Jamaica.
We were able to squeeze in this conversation with Dr Wesley (literally) between meetings whilst he was on mission in Jamaica a few weeks ago. Some of the questions we posed to him included the following:
- Can you give us a better sense of the breadth and depth of CXC, and the role it plays in the Caribbean?
- What does CXC perceive by the term ‘the future of work’, and what is CXC’s role in that regard?
- What is the process CXC uses to update or revise a syllabus?
- How is CXC itself being affected by technology and the changes occurring in the workplace?
- Based some of our earlier discussions on the future of work, there are a range of hard and soft skills that currently, and likely to be in demand in the future. To what degree, and how might CXC better contribute to the development of those skills?
- CXC has been moving many of its examinations online. Should we expect more frequent assessments, instead of just the June and January sittings?
- It has been argued that education systems worldwide are broken, and that we need to break the silos in how subjects are being taught. How might that be possible here in the Caribbean?
- What are your final thoughts on the future of work, and the future of education?
We would love to hear from you!
Do leave us a comment either here beneath this article, or on our Facebook or LinkedIn pages, or via Twitter, @ICTPulse.
Select links
Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:
- Dr Wayne Wesley
- Caribbean Examination Council (CXC)
- Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC)
- Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment (CPEA)
- Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence (CCSLC)
- Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ)
- Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE)
- CXC Associate Degree (CXC-AD)
- Caribbean Association of National Training Authorities (CANTA)
Image credits: Alberto G (flickr); CXC
Music credit: Ray Holman
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