High turn-out for CSEC thus far

Four days into the sitting of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE), public school students have turned out in very satisfactory numbers to sit their respective examinations.

The Ministry of Education said in region three (3) Essequibo Island- West Demerara, it has been noted that students attending schools in that region have been attending their institutions to sit their exams and that there have been no issues with absenteeism for the examinations written to date.

On Thursday students across the country wrote Principles of Accounts (POA) and during visits to four schools, West Demerara, Stewartville, Leonora and Uitvulgt Secondary in Region Three, it was noted that all students registered to write this exam were present. A Leonora secondary school student washing her hands at the entrance of the school before entering her examination room.Stewartville Secondary school students seated to write Principles of Accounts today.Uitvlugt secondary school students receiving instructions from the invigilator before the exam begins.
According to the Headteacher of West Demerara Secondary Mr Harrinarine, he is very satisfied with the conduct of the examinations. The Headteacher said that the attendance of the students is an indication of the importance of the examination to both the students and their parents along with their hardworking teachers.

Mr Harrinarine said that since CSEC and CAPE commenced on Monday all the students registered to write the various exams on the previous days were present. The situation at the other three schools mirrored that of West Demerara secondary.

Additionally, one student said that he was looking forward to his exam and was confident that he was going to do well. At all of the schools the COVID-19 guidelines, that were set out in the gazetted and published examination order No 73/2020 are being stringently enforced.

Students, teachers and persons permitted to be in the school compound are required to wear a face mask at all times. Additionally, handwashing and sanitizing must be done at the entrance of the school. The students are required to be two (2) meters or six (6) feet apart from each other at all times. Playing and gathering are prohibited and the MoE has prohibited vending outside schools to ensure the safety and wellness of everyone. Temperature testing is also mandatory and MoE Education Officers will be visiting schools across the country to ensure that there is full compliance with the order.

Therefore, all preventive measures are implemented and will be monitored throughout the examination. The two exams, CSEC and CAPE are being written from July 13- August 4 and July 13- 31 respectively. For CSEC there are 168 centres with 11,998 students registered to write that exam. While for CAPE 851 candidates are registered to write at 15 centres across the country.