If 2020 was the year Caribbean students and parents in our thousands first raised the alarm about the reliability, validity and fairness of CXC examinations, then 2025 was the year the region received answers. Across Barbados and CARICOM, education and child rights dominated public debate, driven by declining learning outcomes, persistent inequities, and a growing insistence that institutions must be truly accountable to the children they serve.

The 2024 CXC results – with only 4.9% of 200,000 students passing five or more CSEC subjects, including Maths and English, and a 36% Maths regional pass rate – were a stark reminder that the region’s learning crisis is deepening. These results – which were not hugely disparate from prior 10-year trends, and only marginally better in 2025 – exposed not only the lingering effects of pandemic?era disruptions, but also structural weaknesses in: foundational remedial education at the primary school level, curriculum alignment, instructional quality, and assessment reliability. Challenges in addressing socio-economic disparities which impact learning outcomes are clear. Parents, teachers, and students were united in our concern.

2025 saw regional leaders demonstrating material responsiveness to our concerns.

CXC’s April 2025 Repositioning: A Welcome, Long-Overdue Step

In April 2025, CXC announced a strategic repositioning to make the institution more “fit for purpose.” The initiative includes proposed modernising of its governance structures and expanding stakeholder representation – a long?overdue acknowledgment of concerns raised by parents, teachers, and students for years prior to 2020.

CXC has stated that it has a “duty of care” to its students. As we have long said publicly, ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’. Governance reform must be accompanied by clear performance indicators, transparent reporting, and mechanisms that ensure parents have meaningful participation in shaping the future of regional examinations.

CXC Quality Assurance and Communication: The Trust Gap Widens

“Reliability, validity, fairness — without these, no exam body can claim credibility.”

Throughout 2025, concerns persisted regarding:

• Grading anomalies
• Exam paper and invigilator errors
• Pushing of (cheaper?) electronic testing when school ICT infrastructure is insufficient
• Slow or opaque grade review processes, with virtually zero recourse
• Limited responsiveness to stakeholder queries

For students whose futures hinge on these results, such challenges are not administrative issues – they are life?altering. Parents repeatedly report difficulty obtaining timely, substantive responses from CXC. In a high?stakes environment, silence is not neutral; it is harmful.

These quality assurance issues speak to significant deficiencies in reliability, validity, and fairness – the fundamental elements of  testing. These must be materially addressed, or CXC’s strategic repositioning will be of limited effectiveness, and  CARICOM risks becoming less globally competitive as a result.

Our education institutions must demonstrate competence and care.

2020 Independent Review Team (IRT) Recommendations: Still No Transparency

“Five years after the IRT report, the region still does not know what – if anything – was implemented.”

The IRT, convened in 2020, made several key recommendations following widespread CARICOM concerns about CXC’s grading and moderation processes. These included: strengthening quality assurance, improving transparency, enhancing communication, and establishing clearer appeals processes.

Yet five years later, CXC has not publicly, specifically reported whether these recommendations were implemented, partially implemented, or set aside.

Without transparency, trust cannot be rebuilt.

The absence of public reporting on the IRT recommendations raises a deeper question: How can CARICOM evaluate progress when the institution responsible for examinations is not required to account for its own reforms?

UNICEF’s 2021 ‘Call to Action’: Still Unanswered

The concerns raised in 2020 did not emerge in a vacuum. In 2021, 4 UNICEF Representatives in CARICOM (Belize, Guyana & Suriname, Barbados & The Eastern Caribbean, Jamaica) publicly urged CXC and regional Ministries of Education to address valid, widespread anxieties about exam fairness, transparency, and the appeals process. UNICEF called for clearer, timely communication, stronger psychosocial support, and more transparent grading mechanisms.

UNICEF’s intervention in 2021 was a clear signal that the region’s examination governance required strengthening. The fact that these concerns continue to surface in 2025 suggests that the region has not yet fully confronted the structural weaknesses that undermine student confidence and parental trust.

A Regional Learning Crisis with Economic Consequences in 2025

International partners continue to raise alarms. World Bank Director Lilia Burunciuc publicly emphasised in 2025, that low numeracy (and of course literacy) proficiency threatens long?term economic resilience. Improving foundational learning, she argues, is essential for innovation, productivity, and poverty reduction.

The 2024 CSEC results must therefore be understood not only as an educational concern but as a development imperative.

CARICOM Must Review Its Own Governance of CXC in 2026

A critical but often overlooked issue is the governance structure surrounding CXC itself. As a CARICOM institution, CXC ultimately reports to the regional Heads of Government. Yet the current arrangement appears to allow CXC to operate with a high degree of self?regulation. CARICOM Council of Human and Social Development (COHSOD) in noting in May 2021 that ‘the (sole?) authority to determine changes to the administration of CXC’s examinations rests with CXC’ seemed to confirm such self-regulation.

This current, longstanding governance structure, lacking external, independent expert oversight, with limited stakeholder engagement, is likely the root of many unresolved accountability challenges outlined in this essay.

If CXC is to regain public trust, CARICOM must review and amend its own governance of the institution, ensuring stronger oversight, clearer reporting obligations, and mechanisms that prevent conflicts of interest. Regional examination governance cannot rely on internal policing; it requires independent, transparent, and externally accountable structures.

CARICOM cannot continue to treat CXC as both referee and player.

2025: A Breakthrough Year for CARICOM Parental Partnership in Education

This year saw significant regional investment in strengthening parental engagement:

• February 2025: the undersigned was invited and presented parental concerns directly to the CARICOM Heads of Government. Subsequent major initiatives may not be coincidental thereto.
• April 2025: CXC’s strategic repositioning effectively acknowledged stakeholder concerns as valid.
• September – October 2025: The Caribbean Development Bank’s CARICOM Education Symposium, hosted by the Barbados Government, placed parental partnership in education at the centre of its agenda.

These developments demonstrate official recognition that parents are indispensable partners in education, and regional institutions must create structured, well?resourced mechanisms for meaningful engagement.

Parental advocacy is not adversarial – it is essential.

Acknowledging Barbados Government’s Progress on Parental Inclusion in 2025

Amid regional concerns, Barbados has taken meaningful steps in 2025 to strengthen parental participation in education policymaking. The Government has:

• Appointed parents to National Curriculum Development Committees;
• Included parents on CXC stakeholder committees; and
• Engaged parent representatives in discussions on proposed amendments to the Education Act

These measures represent a commendable improvement toward inclusive governance. They demonstrate an understanding that parents are not outsiders to the education system — they are essential partners. Other CARICOM governments would do well to follow Barbados’ lead in this regard.

Barbados’ approach aligns with global best practice and signals a broader regional movement toward participatory education reform.

However, the recent Ministry proposal to present a billing statement to parents to help families “appreciate the true value of the nation’s investment in education” raised questions as to whether the initiative was the most effective, targeted way to build such appreciation. It risks being perceived as symbolic rather than strategic.

Barbados’ 2025 Educational Transformation Agenda

This is an ambitious effort that seeks to optimise education outcomes for our children by modernising curricula and legislation, strengthening teacher professionalisation, overhauling of outdated governance structures, and upgrading school physical and digital infrastructure, all while positioning Barbados to compete globally. The Ministry of Educational Transformation frames this as a national imperative, articulating a vision of building a “world?class, inclusive education system”, grounded in Barbadian values. While the aspiration to become the best education system in the world within five years signals bold leadership and a desire to accelerate change, the scale of the reforms highlights the complexity of achieving such a target within such a compressed timeline, especially given existing challenges such as limited resources, accountability mechanisms, and an archaic governance framework identified in earlier reform documents.

Failure is not an option: we must all be involved in ensuring this transformation is strategic, realistic and achieves its stated objectives.

A Call to Action for 2026

“Parents welcome reform – but without accountability, transparency and measurable performance indicators, education transformation risks becoming a slogan rather than a solution.”

Parents, our children, and teachers are not asking for perfection – we are asking for fairness, transparency, and respect. If our institutions listen – truly listen – 2026 can be the year we truly rebuild trust, modernise our systems, and reaffirm our commitment to the rights and futures of Caribbean children.

The region is ready for education renewal. The question now is whether our institutions are ready to evolve.

Our children deserve no less.

• Paula?Anne Moore

Spokesperson & Coordinator, Group of Concerned Parents of Barbados & Caribbean Coalition for Exam Redress