In an official announcement made Friday, the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has introduced sweeping reforms to its long-standing School-Based Assessment (SBA) system, a response to the growing disruption caused by generative artificial intelligence and rapid technological advancement across regional education sectors. The changes will apply to both the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination® (CAPE) and the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC), with the core goal of upholding the credibility and academic integrity of CXC qualifications.
Dr. Wayne Wesley, CXC Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, emphasized that the reforms are not a rejection of generative AI as a learning tool. Instead, the changes address a critical gap: as AI becomes more accessible to students across the Caribbean, the original SBA framework can no longer reliably verify that submitted work reflects a candidate’s own knowledge and skills. “The SBA has served Caribbean students exceptionally well for almost 50 years, and we do not approach this reform lightly,” Wesley stated in an official release. “But the integrity of our qualifications is non-negotiable. When a system designed to assess student work loses its reliability, we have a duty to act decisively. CXC recognizes the challenges of this era, and we remain unwavering in upholding the standards that Caribbean families, educators, and employers have trusted for decades.”
The revised framework comes after 12 months of extensive consultations with education stakeholders across 21 Caribbean states and territories, and is scheduled to roll out starting with the 2027 academic year. The reforms take a targeted, differentiated approach: for practice-focused subjects where hands-on, project-based work measures skills that cannot be tested in a traditional exam setting—including Agricultural Science, Visual Arts, Music, Physical Education, Technical Drawing, and Food Nutrition and Health—the SBA model will be retained, with stricter moderation processes to strengthen authentication.
For all non-practical academic subjects, such as Mathematics, English, Caribbean History, Social Studies, and Principles of Business, the traditional SBA will be phased out entirely. In its place, candidates will complete Paper 032, CXC’s existing alternative assessment, administered under formal exam conditions. The assessment has been adjusted to retain the SBA’s original focus on extended, reflective learning: candidates will receive their exam topics one month in advance to allow preparation, extra time will be allocated for completion, and students will be permitted to bring personalized reference notes into the exam hall.
In a public video statement accompanying the announcement, CXC Director of Operations Dr. Nicole Manning explained that the redesigned system preserves the core educational value of extended assessment while restoring confidence that work submitted for grading is authentically the candidate’s own. “A CXC qualification holds real value for employers, universities, and the families that sacrifice years of time and resources to support a student’s education,” Manning said. “It is in all our collective interest to uphold the high standard we have worked generations to build.”
Manning also outlined a phased implementation timeline to minimize disruption for students and schools. For CAPE non-practical subjects, the full transition to Paper 032 will take effect for the May–June 2027 exam sitting. For CSEC candidates, 2027 will serve as a transition year, where schools may choose to offer either the traditional SBA or the new Paper 032 model, with a full mandatory transition to Paper 032 scheduled for May–June 2028. Existing SBA scores will remain transferable under CXC’s longstanding two-year validity rule, and starting in 2027, Paper 032 scores will also follow the same two-year transfer policy.