Examinations are a necessary evil in any academic system. There has to be some means of measuring a number of factors associated with the system and the results it produces. In the case of the Virgin Islands, the results will, in the long term, have a major effect on the society itself.
I have often thought that governments of small and sensitive systems like the VI exhibit a tendency to ignore or downgrade the education system for one highly political and self-centred reason: that an educated voting population is far less likely to accept politicians’ posturing.
For example, the government is now posting banners extolling the high school pass rate. It should be evident to anyone who considers the results with anything of a sceptical eye that system pass rates do not change by the amount seen in 2011 unless there is another factor or set of factors involved.
The information that has not been made public includes at least the following:
• In 2010, what was the pass rate based only on the initial set of examinations?
• What percentage of the class was allowed to write supplemental exams?
• What was the final pass rate including those who wrote the supplementals?
• How many of the class applied to colleges or universities outside of the VI?
• What percentage of those who applied to such institutions were accepted?
• What happened to those who did not pass the supplementals?
This information should be used to provide a baseline for consideration of the comparison between the 2010 results and the 2011 results that have caused not a little controversy.
Examinations
In addition, the examination package unquestionably represents the philosophy of the teacher or teachers who set the exams. To no small degree, the teachers are judged by the examination results. Teachers (and the politicians who really control the system) do not want to be found in a situation where disastrously poor results could be taken to reflect poor quality teachers or a system that simply does not work adequately.
This was always the possibility in the Quebec (or Ontario) system, where a single uniform matriculation examination was written by all students. It sometimes happened that the examination was simply too tough and the pass rate on the basis of the raw marks was outside the normal expected range. When this happened (as it did in practice), the marks were scaled statistically to return the results to a pattern that was closer to the norm. If a single school was outside the pattern, then it rapidly became obvious that it was the quality of the teaching that should be questioned.
Public vs. private
In the VI, the apparent difference between the private schools and the public system — when writing common examinations — should be a flag that the two systems perform differently for whatever reason. This, according to Dr. Kedrick Pickering (R-D7), is rather apparent in the primary results. In the secondary results, it would be more difficult to make the comparison since the examinations are not common between schools.
What are common, however, are the CXC examinations and the SAT tests. These results have not been published as yet. It is probably safe to say that, while the results might provide a (needed?) comparison internally in the VI and externally between the VI and the rest of the Caribbean, the results will never be made public unless they are highly favourable to the VI.
So the system will continue as it is. Any improvement that might happen is basically dependent on the initial admission that the system may be in need of modification and improvement. And, given the attitude of the politicians, this is simply not going to happen.