The Jamaica Teachers’ Association says, while it recognises the Caribbean Examinations Council’s responsibility to protect exam integrity, it warns that CXC’s sweeping school-based assessment reform will heavily impact Jamaica’s education system.

The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) recently announced changes to SBAs for non-practical based subjects, starting next year.

CXC said the major reform to its SBA framework is aimed at strengthening assessment integrity across Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) and Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations.

It said this is in response to the rapid rise of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other technological innovations.

CXC said for the non practical subjects, paper 3/2, the alternative assessment, will be used.

JTA President Mark Malabver said this action demands an urgent national conversation about teaching, learning, assessment and the responsible use of AI.

He said CXC must acknowledge that replacing the traditional SBA with paper 3/2 may address only one dimension of the problem, as the misuse of AI is not confined to students completing SBAs.

The Association is calling on the Ministry of Education to urgently convene a session with teachers, school leaders, students, parents, assessment specialists, universities and technology experts to develop a national policy on the responsible use of artificial intelligence in education.

This as schools cannot be left to navigate these complex ethical, instructional and assessment issues, individually.