As the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) releases its 2026 preliminary examination results for multiple certification levels, the moment offers both an opportunity to honor students’ hard work and a critical juncture to address longstanding gaps in regional assessment transparency and system integrity.
First, it is important to extend congratulations to every candidate who crossed this key academic threshold, and to recognize high-achieving students for their dedication. Outstanding performers deserve full commendation, not pressure to downplay their success; a core goal of education should always be to encourage every learner to reach their maximum potential. For candidates who did not get the results they hoped for, the broader education community – from parents and guardians to teachers – must offer targeted empathy and support. Crucially, all students must be reminded that while academic results carry weight, they do not define a person’s worth or future potential. These assessments are just one chapter in a much longer life journey. We also acknowledge the collective effort of every stakeholder in the regional education ecosystem: CXC administrative staff, CARICOM education ministries, school leaders, classroom teachers, private tutors, students and family members, all of whom contribute to making these large-scale examination cycles possible.
While the release of preliminary results for CAPE, CSEC, CVQ, CCSLC and other credentials is a welcome step, much deeper analysis and transparent data sharing are still needed. Education stakeholders across the region are awaiting more granular national and regional breakdowns, as well as comparable year-over-year data that allows for accurate assessment of trends. Based on the preliminary figures released, three core areas demand urgent, focused examination.
The first issue is the urgent need for improved public reporting of pass rates. The 2026 regional pass rate (Grades 1-3) for CSEC stood at 72.18%, while CAPE posted an overall pass rate of 93.5% – but CXC defines CAPE passing grades as Grades 1-5, a framing that obscures a key reality: most competitive universities and employers do not view Grades 4 and 5 as strong passes, and even a Grade 3 often fails to meet entry requirements. While the 93.5% overall pass rate looks impressive on paper, CXC would serve the public far better by following international best practice and publishing disaggregated data: the share of candidates earning Grade 1, and the share earning Grades 1-3. For context, the United Kingdom publishes annual data on the proportion of students earning top A* and A grades at A Level, alongside detailed school-level performance data, to give stakeholders a full picture of outcomes.
It is encouraging that the CSEC Mathematics pass rate rose to 42% in 2026, up from 38% in 2025 and 36% in 2024, an improvement that deserves recognition. However, CXC’s reporting has been inconsistent year over year. In 2024, the council publicly shared the share of candidates who passed five CSEC subjects including Mathematics and English A, a key benchmark required for most further education and employment opportunities – that figure came in at less than 5%, but no comparable statistic was included in this year’s result announcement. CARICOM member states should commit to publishing this critical benchmark and other comparable national statistics on an annual basis, to avoid incomplete narratives that prioritize surface-level self-congratulation over a full accounting of regional academic attainment.
Second, a number of systemic challenges within CXC itself have been sidelined in public discussion, despite their impact on the reliability, validity and fairness of examinations. CXC’s annual post-exam analysis typically focuses on student-side issues: absenteeism, cheating, collusion, misuse of smartphones and more recently, inappropriate AI use in school-based assessments. The more than 35,000 absences recorded among CSEC and CAPE candidates this year are a major cause for concern that demands solution-oriented analysis: how does this figure compare to previous cycles, and what targeted support systems are needed to address the root causes of chronic absenteeism? While cheating is undeniably unacceptable, the 128 reported irregularities this year – even with an increase from 80 last year – represent less than 1% of all candidates, yet they receive far more public attention than far more impactful systemic issues rooted in CXC’s own operations.
For example, the January 2026 hybrid e-testing cycle for English A and Mathematics drew widespread complaints from students and parents over connectivity failures, launch delays, unequal device access and lack of reliable paper backup options. CXC later hailed the cycle as a success, noting that more than 10,000 candidates across 17 Caribbean states completed the first fully electronic and hybrid assessment session. But the valid complaints raised by test-takers and their families cannot be omitted from any formal assessment of this transition to digital testing.
Longstanding concerns have also persisted for years around examination administration, grading transparency and repeated reuse of multiple-choice test items. After the 2020 grading controversy, CXC’s own Independent Review Team recommended that the organization replenish and expand its test item banks on a fixed schedule, to avoid overuse and reduce the risk of security breaches for Paper 1 assessments. CXC subsequently outlined plans to address this recommendation, but public updates on progress have been lacking. Continued transparency around efforts to resolve these long-running issues is critical to maintaining public trust in the regional examination system. If core administrative basics cannot be delivered consistently, adding new layers of complexity to an already under-resourced system carries significant unnecessary risk.
Another key concern is the persistent gender gap in participation: females make up 62% of CAPE candidates and 59% of CSEC candidates, a disparity that reinforces growing evidence that boys in the region face systemic educational barriers. That said, the framing of this issue by some commentators – including Dr Manning’s claim that “men are born leaders, and we have to … help them to stay in that place” – reflects outdated, gendered stereotypes that do not advance evidence-based solutions.
Third, while CXC has declared the pilot of its new Caribbean Technical and Vocational Education and Training Certification (CTEC) a success, and the pilot demonstrates that CXC can effectively launch new credentials and digital assessment models, critical open questions remain. CTEC holds promise as an alternative pathway for students to earn skills recognition and industry-aligned certification, which fills an important gap in the current regional education landscape. But stakeholders need clear answers on how students will be supported to complete these new programs successfully, and what lessons have been learned from the discontinuation of the earlier Basic Proficiency CSEC pathway, to avoid repeating past missteps. Incorporating lessons from previous failed vocational pathways will be critical to ensuring CTEC delivers long-term value for students.
After the 2020 grading controversy, CXC convened an Independent Review Team that put forward 23 actionable recommendations for systemic improvement. CXC published initial responses to these recommendations, noting which measures had been implemented and which remained in progress. Regular public updates on the implementation of these recommendations would allow stakeholders across the region to track progress and prioritize areas that still need attention. True continuous improvement of the regional examination system depends on three core pillars: transparency, accountability and public trust.
This year’s results bring many achievements worth celebrating, from incremental improvements in core subject pass rates to the successful launch of a promising new vocational certification. But there are also serious systemic issues that demand open public discussion and targeted action. CXC, working alongside CARICOM’s regional leadership, owes the taxpaying public clear, honest answers on all the concerns raised in this analysis. Only through transparent self-reflection and sustained, intentional improvement can the region build an examination system that truly serves all students, and advance the educational transformation the Caribbean needs to support future generations.