The position of the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (METI) is that marking of the SBA forms part of the duties of the teacher.
It is clear therefore that failure on the part of the teacher to submit final marks for students??? SBAs would represent a dereliction of duty, and could be subject to disciplinary action under the Code of Discipline of the Public Service Act, Cap 29.
The Ministry must stress that the unreasonable stance taken by the BSTU and supported by the BUT, to deny students marks for the work which they have done throughout the year would have serious ramifications for students taking the Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advance Proficiency Examination (CAPE) examinations with an SBA component.
Students will be disadvantaged in their pursuit of higher education at Universities and other tertiary institutions or entry into the sixth form because they will not be awarded a grade for a CSEC or CAPE subject without the marked SBA submitted by the teacher.
The METI reiterates that the CSEC and CAPE examinations are administered at the regional level and decisions are not within the purview of Barbados.
The rules which govern the penalties for the failure to submit SBAs apply to all the Caribbean territories, Barbados is not exempt. If the SBAs are not marked by the subject teachers then the students will receive an ungraded result.
The School Based Assessment (SBA) is not an examination set by an external body. A School Based Assessment (SBA) is a set of assignments or a project, set and marked by the teacher using guidelines and criteria provided in the syllabus to which Caribbean countries that are members of the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) have all agreed.
1.It is one of the components of the final assessment and may weigh from 15 to 40 % (depending on the subject) of the final grade awarded to the student.
2.The SBA is part of a course of study, taught by the teacher and it is indeed the teacher???s duty to guide and mark the SBA submitted by the student. The SBA is also a means by which the teacher evaluates students, on a continuous basis, in preparation for the final examination. It also means that the student???s work is not based on the work on the examination date only.
3.During the course of study for the subject, candidates are awarded marks by their teachers for specified knowledge, skills and attitudes they demonstrate in completing their SBA assignments. These marks contribute to the final marks and grades that are awarded to candidates for their performance in the examination.
4.Upon completion, SBA marks are submitted online on CXC???s website and a sample of SBAs per subject is generated online.
5.These samples are submitted through the Principal of the school to the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (METI) to be forwarded to CXC. It must be noted that only the generated samples are brought to the Ministry.
6.SBAs are done at the school level and hence Principals and teachers are accountable for the marking of SBAs. This forms part of their teaching and assessment duties, characteristic of the teaching profession.
The ramifications of unmarked SBAs cannot be overstated.??Regulation 2.1.10 (page 14) states that: Candidates presented by recognised educational institutions must submit within the year of the examination, their SBA/IA assignments as required by the syllabus.
Procedure 13.4.3 (page 36) states that: Candidates will be reported ???ungraded: no IA/SBA received??? if the required IA/SBA was not submitted by the presenting institution on their behalf, or if, the Council having requested samples of the work done by the class, none was submitted by the presenting institution.
Additionally, when a final mark is not submitted, moderation will not be possible as the process requires the moderator to compare his or her score to that of the teacher. Consequently, students are in danger of receiving an ungraded result.
The Ministry reiterates its position that all teachers involved in the preparation of the SBAs are expected to mark and submit the marks as is required. METI is calling for good sense to prevail and urges teachers to continue to perform duties assigned to them as part of their contract of employment.