A planned public release of the annual national aggregate results for this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations has been put on hold by education officials, after two major grading inconsistencies were uncovered affecting multiple subject areas at two separate institutions, Education Minister Phillip Jackson confirmed to Parliament this Thursday.
The announcement comes more than a week after individual test-takers gained access to their personal grades via the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC)’s online student portal on August 18. According to Jackson, the delay is limited exclusively to the compilation and publication of the broad national performance breakdown that compares outcomes across schools; it has not impacted any student’s ability to view, share or use their personal results for post-secondary enrollment processes.
“Two major discrepancies were identified for a number of subjects across two schools. We flagged the issue internally first, then immediately notified the CXC, which is currently working to correct the errors,” Jackson explained to legislators. “We made the call to hold off on releasing the full national dataset because publishing it with these inconsistencies intact would have been premature. It could have skewed inter-school performance rankings and distorted the overall national picture, which would have been unfair to institutions and students alike.”
Jackson emphasized that the disruption has not derailed the academic progression of the vast majority of CSEC candidates. Almost all test-takers have already accessed their individual grades and submitted them to support college admissions, with many having already secured enrollment for upcoming terms. The minister even offered a personal example, noting that his own son had passed all of his CSEC subjects and had completed his college registration already.
“For over a week, every candidate has held their own results. Parents have been fully informed of their children’s performance, and the entire education system is continuing to operate as normal, with no interruptions to student progression,” Jackson said. “This delay only affects the aggregated public data report, not the individual outcomes students rely on for their next academic steps.”
Officials from the Ministry of Education are continuing to work closely with the CXC to resolve the grading anomalies, Jackson confirmed. Once all corrections are finalized and the accuracy of the national dataset is verified, the ministry will publish the full performance summary via an official public statement. “We are working assiduously alongside the CXC to sort out this issue as quickly as possible, and we will release the full results as soon as that process is complete,” he added.
In a closing note to candidates, Jackson reminded students who did not achieve the scores they had targeted that a second chance is already scheduled. Those wishing to improve their results will be able to resit their affected CSEC examinations this coming January. While the minister declined to share specific details on the nature of the identified discrepancies or name the two impacted institutions, he framed the delay as a necessary precaution to safeguard the integrity of school performance rankings and guarantee the accuracy of the national CSEC results report.