Gopeesingh: Garcia must take blame

On Thursday at a press conference, Garcia placed blame for the errors on the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC). In a statement to the media yesterday, Gopeesingh said Garcia has direct and total responsibility for the education sector and cannot “pass the buck” to a regional institution. He said the ministry has representation, at a senior administrative level, at the Barbados-based CXC and ought to have ensured the crucial examination was error-free.

“In fact, on the eve of the examination, Mr Garcia confidently assured that everything was in place for a smooth running of the test and that the ministry had played its appropriate role,” Gopeesingh said.

He said the ministry’s Division of Education Research and Evaluation and Chief Education Officer Harrilal Seecharan, should have ensured an error-free examination.

He said the errors added further stress to the more than 18,000 students who wrote the examination and, “raised burning questions about the integrity of the examination process.” “Mr Garcia must apologise to the students and must launch a full and complete investigation into the obvious and critical failure of the ministry’s officials who serve at the CXC. This foul-up in the latest in a series under Mr Garcia’s watch, which have served to undermine and otherwise negatively impact the education sector in Trinidad and Tobago,” Gopeesingh said.