Reduce dependence on CXC for certification of subjects, says principal

Keith Wellington, Principal of St. Elizabeth Technical High School

Keith Wellington, Principal of St. Elizabeth Technical High School

By Kimone Witter     

Principal of St. Elizabeth Technical High School, Keith Wellington, is suggesting that the Ministry of Education reduce its dependence on the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) for certification of subjects at the secondary level.

Mr. Wellington is recommending that the ministry look to local examining bodies.

His comments follow concerns that discussions are taking place about the discontinuation of Green Engineering, Agricultural Science (double award), Mechanical Engineering and Electrical and Electronic Engineering, due to low enrolment.

Speaking Friday on TVJ’s Smile Jamaica, Mr. Wellington said CXC should seek to increase interest in the subjects, because there are markets for them.

He said the concern among all schools is not just in relation to the current issue, but an observation that CXC has been reluctant in the proper certification of technical vocational subjects.

Mr. Wellington, who is an Information Technology teacher, recalled that “in the mid 2000s”, the CXC had two syllabuses for that subject – general, which focused on programming and technical, which focused on productivity tools. 

“In the mid 2000s they abandoned the general syllabus…where students were learning to write computer programmes as a part of the syllabus…. And now we see, for example, in Jamaica, where all our schools are being encouraged to teach coding,” he lamented. 

Mr. Wellington said the technical syllabus for Information Technology is now more theory-based than practical, as is now the case for Visual Arts.

He said if the decision is taken to abandon certification of the five subjects, the Ministry should not pull them from the local offerings. 

“Well, I think that we will still have to teach them and find ways of certifying them. I think the good thing for us is that there are other examining bodies who may not have the same exact syllabus, but there may be similar content that can be taught. City and Guilds, the NCTVET, our national training agency, also does certification. I think the problem for us has arisen because over the last, four-five decades, our culture has focused so much on CXC and certification at the CXC level,” he pointed out. 

According to Mr. Wellington, an initial meeting was held with the Ministry of Education and principals this week on the discontinuation of certification of the five CXC subjects.

“We know that our government has said that this is not something that they are in support of…and they have indicated that they will be having further discussions on the matter because we should not have learned of it the way we did.”

He said further consultations have been planned. 

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