Student advocate Khaleel Kothdiwala is questioning the decision of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) to host examinations during a thunderstorm.
At 5:10 a.m., Barbados Meteorological Services issued a severe thunderstorm and flash flood warning.
Acting Chief Education Officer Joy Adamson subsequently issued a statement that all face-to-face classes were postponed for the day.
However, she said that CXC and CAPE examinations would proceed, as the Ministry of Education had no control over the scheduling of those regional examinations.
Adamson advised students who could not get to their respective centres to go to the nearest examination centre, where they would be accommodated.
Kothdiwala said they had since received many reports of students in St Lucy and other northern parishes who are unable to get out of their homes, due to fallen trees blocking them in, as well as severe flooding.
“Regrettably, CXC has no conception of contingency planning. They are so firmly wedded to the traditional way of doing things that their solution is ‘if you can’t make it to your centre, get to the nearest one and do that exam’.
“If the Caribbean Examinations Council is incapable of administering examinations effectively . . . it is high time that we consider relieving them of that function,” he said. (RA)
