分类： education

As generative artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into classroom learning across the globe, regional education assessment bodies are moving quickly to adapt their systems to protect the credibility of qualifications. The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has become one of the first major regional assessment organizations to announce sweeping reforms to its decades-old School-Based Assessment (SBA) program, rolling out a restructured framework set to launch in 2027 that directly addresses the risks of AI-generated student work.

The changes, which will impact both the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) programs, follow more than a year of extensive consultations with education stakeholders across 21 Caribbean countries and territories. CXC leadership emphasized that the reforms are not intended to ban student use of generative AI, but rather to ensure that exam results continue to accurately measure individual student knowledge and skills amid a shifting educational landscape.

“The SBA has served Caribbean students well for nearly half a century, and we do not reform it lightly,” said Dr. Wayne Wesley, CXC Registrar and Chief Executive Officer. “But the integrity of our qualifications is not negotiable. When the system that was designed to assess a student’s work can no longer reliably do so, we have an obligation to act, and to act decisively.” Wesley added that the council recognizes generative AI can function as a valuable learning tool, and the reforms only seek to preserve public trust in the assessment process that Caribbean families, educators, and employers have relied on for generations.

The new framework adopts a targeted, subject-specific approach to assessment. For programs that rely heavily on hands-on, practical, or project-based work where in-person skill demonstration is critical, the traditional SBA model will remain in place. These subjects include Agricultural Science, Visual Arts, Music, Physical Education, Technical Drawing, and Food, Nutrition and Health. CXC has also announced it will strengthen moderation processes for these practical SBA programs to add an additional layer of integrity oversight.

For primarily theory-based subjects including Mathematics, English, Caribbean History, Social Studies, Principles of Business, and Information Technology, the traditional SBA will be phased out entirely over the next two years. In place of take-home, out-of-examination SBA projects, students in these subjects will complete Paper 032, an in-exam assessment that was previously used only as an alternative option for select candidates.

Under the revised Paper 032 model, students will receive their assessment topics one month in advance of the exam date to allow for extended research and preparation, will be granted extra time to complete the assessment, and will be permitted to bring approved reference notes into the exam room. This structure retains the original SBA’s focus on extended, reflective learning while ensuring all work submitted is completed by the student under supervised conditions, eliminating the risk of undetectable AI-generated content.

Dr. Nicole Manning, CXC Director of Operations, explained that the redesigned assessment strikes a careful balance between supporting meaningful learning and protecting the authenticity of student work. “The new, deliberate and necessary design of the SBA, preserves the spirit of extended, reflective assessment while restoring CXC’s confidence in authorship and authenticity,” Manning said. She emphasized that the value of CXC qualifications matters to every stakeholder in the region, from employers and universities to families that have invested years of time and resources into students’ education, making collective commitment to high assessment standards a shared priority.

CXC has outlined a clear implementation timeline for the transition. For CAPE candidates enrolled in non-practical, theory-based subjects, Paper 032 will replace the traditional SBA starting with the May-June 2027 exam session. For CSEC, the council will allow a one-year transition period, where schools can choose between the traditional SBA and the new Paper 032 model for their 2027 candidates. Starting with the May-June 2028 CSEC exam session, all non-practical subject candidates will be required to complete Paper 032. The council also confirmed that its existing two-year mark transfer policy will remain in place for both remaining SBA programs and the new Paper 032 assessment, allowing students to carry over valid scores from previous exam sittings under the same terms that have applied to SBA marks for decades.

As the global community marks World Youth Skills Day on July 15 this year, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has issued a stark reminder that unlocking the full potential of younger generations depends on large-scale investment in inclusive, high-quality education and skills training. Closing the growing global skills gap, Guterres emphasizes, is the key to generating widespread decent employment opportunities and building sustainable livelihoods for billions of young people around the world.

Established by the UN General Assembly in 2014, World Youth Skills Day was created to draw global attention to the critical strategic role of equipping young people with the competencies they need for gainful employment, dignified work, and entrepreneurial success. This year’s observance centers on the theme “Skills for a Shared Future,” with a core focus on empowering youth with the full range of technical, artificial intelligence, digital, green, and social-emotional skills required to succeed in a fast-evolving global labor market and drive inclusive sustainable development. The annual event also spotlights young people’s unique role as agents of change in building more inclusive and resilient societies worldwide.

The UN stresses that the global world of work is undergoing unprecedented transformation, driven by three major forces: the rise of artificial intelligence, the urgent global transition to green economies, and growing social complexity. These shifts are fundamentally reshaping how people learn, work, and engage with their communities. To navigate this changing landscape successfully, young people need far more than narrow technical training: they require a balanced mix of competencies that combines technical, digital, AI, green, social-emotional, and civic skills with irreplaceable human qualities that no technology can replicate.

Even as global youth unemployment has seen a modest decline in recent years, youth joblessness and exclusion remain one of the world’s most pressing economic and social challenges. Data from the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) 2024 Global Employment Trends for Youth report shows that the global youth unemployment rate dropped to 13% in 2023 — a 15-year low that sits below the pre-pandemic 2019 rate of 13.8%. But this recovery has been deeply uneven across regions: youth unemployment rates in the Arab States, East Asia, and South-East Asia remained higher in 2023 than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Worse, one in five young people globally — and more than one quarter of all young women — fall into the NEET category, meaning they are not engaged in employment, education, or skills training of any kind. The global NEET rate for young women stands at 28.1%, more than double the 13.1% rate recorded for young men. Local data from Jamaica’s Statistical Institute, for example, puts the country’s youth unemployment rate at 11.7% as of April 2026, with young women carrying a disproportionately heavy share of that burden. Even for young people who do find work, decent, formal employment remains out of reach for most: more than half of all young workers are stuck in informal employment, and in low-income countries, three out of four young workers only hold self-employment or temporary positions with little to no job security or benefits.

While targeted investment in green and blue economic sectors has the potential to create 8.4 million new jobs for young people by 2030, the UN emphasizes that these new roles must guarantee core labor standards, including equal pay, collective bargaining rights, and protection from workplace harassment.

At the center of global efforts to close the youth skills gap is Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), a sector that has long been unfairly stigmatized in many education systems around the world. A common but myopic narrative has framed TVET as a track only for less academically inclined students, but global education leaders say this outdated perspective must be completely reworked to meet 21st-century labor demands. As part of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, SDG 4 — which calls for inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all — prioritizes expanding access to affordable, high-quality TVET, helping all people acquire the vocational skills needed for employment, closing gender skill gaps, and ensuring vulnerable groups can access training opportunities.

Far from being a second-choice education track, TVET is uniquely positioned to address the overlapping economic, social, and environmental challenges facing the world today. It equips young people with the practical skills needed to enter the workforce, including skills for self-employment and entrepreneurship. It also makes education systems more responsive to shifting skill demands from employers and communities, boosts overall productivity, and increases wage levels for workers. By expanding work-based learning opportunities and ensuring skills gained are officially recognized and certified, TVET also reduces barriers to employment for marginalized groups, including low-skilled underemployed and unemployed workers, out-of-school youth, and NEETs.

In the Caribbean region, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) uses annual World Youth Skills Day observances to highlight the urgent need to equip Caribbean youth with 21st-century skills to drive employment and regional sustainable development. CARICOM partners with regional entities such as Jamaica’s HEART/NSTA Trust to expand and improve TVET programs across the region, with the goal of building a resilient, future-ready workforce. The annual day serves as a strategic platform to advance key regional priorities, including reducing regional import dependency through strengthening agricultural sectors, closing the digital divide, and supporting youth entrepreneurship across all member states. Even with these efforts, however, systemic barriers remain: global education systems are still marked by deep inequities that leave many young people — especially those living in rural and low-income communities — disadvantaged and excluded from quality training opportunities. This exclusion has contributed to widespread hopelessness among many young people globally.

Disturbing UN data underscores the scale of the crisis: 86% of current students report they do not feel prepared to succeed in an AI-driven workplace. Some 450 million young people — 70% of the global youth population — are economically disengaged, due entirely to a lack of the skills demanded by the modern labor market. In many low- and middle-income countries, fewer than 1% of poor rural women complete secondary education, locking them into cycles of exclusion and poverty.

Skills are far more than just a pathway to individual employment: they are transformative tools that can empower entire generations and build collective long-term wealth. Global leaders and education advocates are calling for a coordinated global movement to rekindle hope among marginalized young people. On this World Youth Skills Day, organizers stress that young people can only become a powerful positive force for global development when they have access to the knowledge and opportunities they need to thrive. In particular, young people need the targeted education and skill training required to contribute to productive, sustainable economies — and they need inclusive labor markets that can absorb them into meaningful work.

This commentary was written by Wayne Campbell, an educator and social commentator focused on how development policies intersect with culture and gender equity.

Last week, more than 300 students crossed the commencement stage at Dominica State College (DSC), marking a major milestone in their academic journeys while receiving bold guidance on what comes next from environmental lawyer and keynote speaker Annika Bellot.

Bellot challenged the 2026 graduating class to reframe their hard-earned degrees: instead of seeing the credential as the final destination of their education, she argued it is tangible proof that they have already mastered the most critical skill for a fast-shifting modern world: the ability to learn new things.

In a stirring address that redefined common ideas of leadership and success, Bellot pushed back against the narrow focus on immediate employment that often shapes new graduates’ priorities. “Leadership itself is not just a title, it’s not a position, it’s not just standing on a podium or being placed on a program; leadership is the decision to live in a way that expands what other people believe is possible in this life,” she told the crowd of graduates, family, and faculty.

She went on to urge graduates to look beyond the question of what job they can secure immediately after graduation, encouraging them to instead reflect on deeper questions: what kind of person they want to become, what spaces they need to enter to grow into that person, and what new skills, perspectives and conversations they need to pursue along the way.

Bellot emphasized that the rapidly changing global landscape makes lifelong adaptability far more valuable than static knowledge. Industries shift, climate change reshape economies, technology redefines daily life, and artificial intelligence is already transforming the very nature of work, she noted. In this new world, she said, success will not go to those who only know how to complete a fixed set of tasks. Instead, the future will reward continuous learners: people who can adapt, think across disciplinary lines, communicate clearly, solve complex problems, and approach challenges with creative, unconventional thinking.

Beyond professional preparedness, Bellot added that the emerging generation of Dominican nurses, teachers, entrepreneurs, public servants and community leaders must cultivate a lasting curiosity about the world around them to drive meaningful change across the island nation.

Following Bellot’s keynote, DSC Interim President Trudy Christian reflected on the institution’s 23-year history of expanding access to education across Dominica. Though the college is still in what Christian called its “fledgling stage of adulthood,” she noted that it has already made extraordinary contributions to building human capital for every sector of the Dominican local economy.

Unlike many specialized post-secondary institutions, DSC has structured its offerings to meet the diverse needs of Dominican learners: it currently delivers more than 30 distinct academic programs that combine technical and vocational education and training (TVET) with nursing education, teacher training, and a broad range of arts and science disciplines all under one institutional umbrella. Christian explained that beyond the annual cohort of full degree graduates, the college also boosts the employability of hundreds more community members each year through short courses and professional development training programs, all delivered by a team of roughly 140 full-time dedicated faculty and staff.

Christian highlighted that the college’s work would not be possible without consistent investment and support from the Dominican government, private sector partners and a network of community collaborators, expressing deep gratitude for that ongoing backing. She also addressed public policymakers and institutional leaders who may grow frustrated by the slow pace of incremental progress when large long-term goals remain unmet. When policymakers ask what return they get on their investment in DSC, Christian said the impact of the institution cannot be measured in immediate, short-term gains. The work of the college is rooted in generational transformation and long-term national transformation – outcomes that will deliver lasting, meaningful glory for the entire nation, she emphasized.

As a testament to DSC’s outsize impact on Dominican society, Christian noted that in 2026 alone, DSC alumni were selected as featured commencement speakers at nearly every secondary school graduation across the country. These invitations were extended to alumni specifically because of their proven contributions to Dominican society and their ability to inspire the next wave of young learners, Christian added, offering clear evidence that the college’s investment in students is rippling across generations.