School charges to complete course work for students

A popular private school in the Corporate Area is now offering to complete the School-Based Assessment (SBA) for students at an additional cost.

A call from a STAR reporter, posing as a student, to a cellphone number listed on the school's poster that was being handed out in Half-Way Tree revealed that the school charges students an additional $4,500 to have their SBAs done by a member of the teaching staff.

The person who spoke to our reporter explained that the student would have to decide on the topic of their SBA, but their input thereafter would be minimal.

The reporter was told that one would have to come into the office and sign up for classes for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects before they are given additional details.

The SBA is the internal assessment of a student's performance. This body of work is usually at least 20 per cent of the candidate's final grade. The SBA is expected to be 100 per cent the effort of the student being evaluated.

The work is then marked by the teacher in charge of the subject and a grade is submitted to the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), which has the authority to moderate the scores awarded by the teachers to their students.

When THE STAR tried to get an official comment from CXC's communications department, we were told that the head of the section was on vacation leave. However, an official at CXC said a school could lose its approval as a CXC examination centre if solid evidence can be found to show that an SBA submitted by the school was not the student's individual effort, but that of a teacher's. This information is included in the SBA Manual For Principals.

However, when the private school was contacted officially by the STAR later, they denied the allegations. They also said the person who spoke with us from their advertised cellphone number does not have the authority to divulge information about SBAs and the process.