MINISTER OF EDUCATION Ronald Jones has dismissed concerns about the integrity of the marking for this year’s School Based Assessments (SBAs) as “rubbish”.
Given what appears to be the “mark by any means necessary” approach to the grading of the projects, questions are being raised about the reliability of the grades being awarded to the children, which account for 20 per cent of the final grade in most instances.
Following a seven-year battle with the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) for compensation for all teachers who grade SBAs, the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) instructed its members not to grade the final projects. BSTU president Mary Redman has already hinted that the action could escalate next year.
While some schools have reported that all their SBAs had been corrected prior to the April 15 deadline for submission to the Ministry of Education, which has since been extended to the end of the month, other reports have surfaced of an apparent mad scramble to get the uncorrected projects graded by the new date.
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