Hard pick for Ministry

Following the outstanding results recorded for the Cambridge Advanced Level and Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) CAPE examinations, Senior Education Officer in the Ministry of Education, Youth & Sports, Marcus Caine, is predicting that it is going to be difficult to select this year’s National Scholarship recipients because so many students have performed well.{{more}}

At a press conference hosted by the Ministry of Education on Monday, August 25, Caine announced that there has been significant improvement in not only the quantity of pass grades, but also the quality. He recounted that there had only been one candidate who gained all distinctions in 2007. He revealed that, this year, there are a “…handful” who have achieved that accolade.

Caine, in his remarks, shared that the selection of national scholars will certainly not be an easy one. “There is going to be very strong competition this year…” he declared. He further mused that the Prime Minister might just decide to increase the number of scholarships offered when he is shown the individual results. Caine announced his intent to present a list of 27 outstanding students to be considered.

Last year, Government awarded six national scholarships of a five-year duration and four exhibitions of a three-year duration.

Caine explained that in the past, the Cambridge examining body would tally up the raw scores of candidates and send a list to the Ministry of Education indicating the ranking of the candidates. From that list, the top-ranked students would be given scholarships, according to how many were being offered that year. Now that students take exams at both the Cambridge A’ level and the CXC CAPE, the Cambridge and CXC examiners each forward a list of the top 30 performers, along with their raw scores for the A’ level and CAPE examinations, respectively. As the weighting is identical for both examining bodies, the scores are then combined then passed on to the Minister of Education, who then relays them to Cabinet.

Caine emphasised that, ultimately, decisions are made based on “…raw scores taken from both Cambridge and CXC…”.