The practice, which is against CXC’s strict exam rules, will result in the instant disqualification of the offender.

 CXC Director of Operations, Dr. Nicole Manning reported that this year candidates used cellular phones during exams. Smartwatches, she added, have been introduced in students’ bag of tricks, as a means to cheat their way through the assessments.

 “I want to draw your attention to CAPE, as we saw an increase in irregularities this year. We saw an increase from 2 to 17. The use of cellular phones is still one of our biggest issues. They not only had them in their bags but literally had them on their persons, utilizing it. We have also seen the introduction of smartwatches. And so, that is another cause for concern,” Dr. Manning explained. She, however, added, that CXC is doing a full review of its existing regulations to ensure similar incidents do not repeat themselves in the future.

 On the topic of candidate absenteeism, Dr Manning said CXC views this situation with disappointment this year. For the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE), 9974 candidates were absent from exams. These are candidates who registered for exams and did not turn up. These candidates are ungraded.  This number pales in comparison to the 71,000 absent candidates in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC).

Meanwhile, Dr. Manning announced a marked improvement in the performance of students in CSEC Mathematics. During an analysis of the CSEC results, it was observed that 43% of candidates attained acceptable grades in Mathematics. This figure is up from 37% in 2022. The number of Grade Ones achieved this year in the subject was 8%, a 2% increase from last year’s.

“So it is still a cause for concern, especially with the fact that the paper is standard... and has been a standard paper from day one. It's just something we have to look at,” Dr. Manning told students and educators of the region.

 According to her, other subjects also saw an improvement in performance for this year.