As a mark of the achievement of 130 years of service to the people of Jamaica, The Overseas Examinations Commission (OEC) has announced its intention to invest $200-million in ICT equipment, inclusive of computers, software, UPS and security systems, to schools across the island over the next three years.

The first tranche is to be distributed in the first term of the new 2017/2018 school year to 30 schools across Jamaica, which will each receive 30 computers each.

This initiative comes in light of the stated intention of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) to move all Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate CSEC and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination CAPE examinations online and the recognition that most schools are not equipped with computers to begin to move from paper-based examinations to the online platform.

HAPPY TO PLAY A ROLE

OEC Chairman Brian Bennett-Easy noted that “although this will not satisfy the demand for computers in high schools in Jamaica either for exams or for the classroom needs, the commission is delighted to be able to play a role in bringing some schools and the students they serve closer to meeting the CXC implementation of the new examination conditions”.

He said over the next few months, the OEC will be finalising the short list, based on need, infrastructural capability and the satisfaction of the Government’s procurement guidelines before making the announcement of the final list of schools to benefit.

On November 10, OEC will celebrate its 130th anniversary. The commission is an agency of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information and acts as a proctoring (supervisory) body for many overseas examining boards for secondary- and tertiary-level education.

IMAGE: Brian Bennett-Easy