The Ministry of Education, Youth, Sports, and Culture is reporting resounding success in the phased rollout of e-testing for the recently concluded Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment (CPEA), at 3 schools on island.
A total of 40 students from Mt Pleasant Government in Carriacou, Mt Moritz Anglican and Mt Rose SDA Primary wrote the exam online. It was written over a 2-day period, 4–5 May 2023. The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) provided credentials for each student to be able to log in to do the exam.
ICT Officer in the Ministry of Education, Kade De Coteau, said while the e-testing for CPEA is new, the students were able to easily manipulate the system. He said, “First of all, you had to determine if the students have the digital skillset to do the exam online. Because we are starting from scratch, we had to do an assessment with all the schools that were selected to determine their digital skills. Once the schools passed that stage, we then started with the training and, of course, after this training, the district IT officers reported that the students took the training very easy.”
De Coteau said that the Ministry held consultations with parents, teachers, and principals of the selected schools for the inaugural CPEA e-testing. Schools were chosen based on their size, location, and involvement with ICT throughout the year. The ICT Officer added that there are schools already requesting to be a part of CPEA online exams in 2024.
There were 19 students from Mt Rose SDA Primary, 13 at Mt Moritz Anglican in Grenada and eight at Mt Pleasant Government in Carriacou. Selected students reported that it was easier to choose the answers using the mouse as opposed to shading, which led to them completing the exam at a faster rate.
Acting Principal of the Mt Pleasant Government School, Kerwin Noel said, “Well, I would encourage all principals of primary schools, teachers, and parents to get on board, because it’s the direction where we’re heading. Like it or not, in the next year or 2 we will have no choice. So, get the children on board now and encourage them, because it’s a much easier platform to work with.”
Grenada is the 4th territory in the region, after Anguilla, Suriname, and Saba, to administer CPEA online. Island-wide, there were 1,877 students from 70 primary schools doing the Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment in 2023. The exam entailed multiple choice papers in 4 areas: mathematics, language arts, science, and social studies. Each paper had a duration of 75 minutes.
CPEA was introduced by the Caribbean Examinations Council in 2012 when it replaced the Common Entrance Exams.
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