By Deandrea Hamilton and Dana Malcolm 

Editorial Staff

June 22, 2023 – The Caribbean Examinations Council will proceed with examinations as normal for all regions; an announcement which had been anticipated after as many as nine examination papers had reportedly been stolen from an exam centre in Jamaica.

The CXC candidates had been in a state of limbo, but a meeting held last Thursday June 15 with regional stakeholders affirmed the next step, which would be to carry out the examinations as scheduled.

The fireproof safe containing exams had been stolen on June 14 and contained both completed papers and the questions to nine exams yet to be administered region wide.

Students, teachers and parents had to wait for the outcome of an investigation into the issue before finding out whether exams would be pushed back. The Council on June 16 said with no evidence that the stolen safe had been compromised the dates for exams will continue as scheduled.

This was the second time the 2023 examination papers suffered some breach.  The first in May, also in Jamaica, was a reported leak of Mathematics Paper 2 ahead of the exam that same day.

Interestingly now, the Council has issued a new notice with there being a potential for some examination candidates to be delayed in testing; this time though, the threat is a natural disaster.  Tropical Storm Bret has caused some warnings to be issued in the lesser Antilles which includes Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Dominica.

The National Hurricane Center, in its 11 p.m. advisory (Wednesday June 21) informed that a Tropical Storm Warning in in effect for: Dominica, St. Lucia and Martinique.  A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for: Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Advice to students sitting the exams is to prepare to be present for their CXCs unless otherwise instructed by their country’s disaster preparedness office.