By Lazeena Yearwood
Atishta Seenarine, the most outstanding student at the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) 2022 has credited part of her success to the Caribbean Examination Council’s (CXC) online testing system.
She is now urging the examining body to further utilise the system for all of its future exams.
Seenarine was awarded the Dennis Irvine award, the symbol of academic excellence, on Thursday during the CXC 2022 awards ceremony held virtually from Turks and Caicos. Guyana copped several awards with Seenarine being the recipient of two: most outstanding overall performer and most outstanding student in the sciences.
Her achievement has further earned her alma mater, Saraswati Vidya Niketan School, the title of “CAPE school of the year.”
The headmaster received this award on behalf of the school.
During her acceptance speech, the now University of Guyana student thanked her former class teachers for their support, her parents, sister and the Ministry of Education for being dedicated to providing good, quality education to students.
While noting that the education system was hit with the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Seenarine said she was grateful to the examining body for utilising new initiatives in its administration of the exams.
“I must commend the regional ministries of education and schools for representing the students at a relevant levels and also CXC for understanding the situation and reacting appropriately.
“Furthermore, I would like to applaud CXC for embarking on the path to R-testing. In experiencing the E-testing platform for a few paper ones, the interface proves to be very friendly. Therefore, I look forward to hearing more about E-testing in CXC and its administration of examinations and modernisation plans as it concerns education, delivery and syllabi content across all subject areas,” she said.
Notably, Seenarine said CXC’s decision to delay the administration of examinations, extend assessment deadlines and provide broad topics to enhance students’ preparations, greatly helped with her studies.
Speaking with reporters after the award ceremony, Seenarine said she would definitely advocate for E-testing to cover both paper one and paper two exams.
Seenarine encourages upcoming candidates to “put your best effort forward and be creative in all of your courses to ensure success. At the same time, remember to pay keen attention to your health and well-being. I’ve always tried to engage in some extracurricular activities to maintain a well-balanced life.”
Meanwhile CXC’s Chief Executive Officer and Registrar, Dr Wayne Wesley, said the examining body is constantly trying to improve the lives of the Caribbean people.
“You must know that, we at the Caribbean Examinations Council are working assiduously at making sure that we create qualification and opportunities to all students exiting the secondary education system.
“We look with great determination and fierce urgency to ensure that we arrest the problem that is causing many of our young people not to realise their fullest potential,” Dr Wesley said.
He said that the CXC is working with education ministries to develop programmes that are relevant and pertinent to Caribbean people. He also noted that there is a worrying number of persons exiting the school system without qualification, and as such, it is important that those who do excel at this level are recognised for their achievements.
