Editorial | CXC and AI debate

Last week’s announcement by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) that it will, from next year, phase out school-based assessments (SBA) for some subjects in its regional exams strengthens the need  for a national debate on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in Jamaica’s education system. 
This discussion must also take place within a regional context, given the shared ownership of CXC by regional governments, its status as an institution of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and the almost automatic recognition of its certificates within the community.  
Moreover, as CARICOM moves to transform itself into a genuine single market and economy, with the free movement of capital and labour within the community, the harmonisation of standards across member states will become increasingly important.  An employer in Basseterre, St Kitts, for instance, needs to be assured that a Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) certification issued by an institution in Jamaica is equivalent to one awarded in Trinidad and Tobago, and vice versa.
For nearly 50 years of CXC exams, students were allowed to have one test of their knowledge of, or competence in, a subject, to be based on work prepared independently over the school year, rather than in formal examination conditions, and assessed by their teachers. This system was adopted by several examination bodies. 
But, in last week’s announcement, CXC said that the rapid growth in generative artificial intelligence (AI) raised concerns about “maintaining the integrity and authenticity of student assessments”.
RELY ON AI
The examination body’s fear is that students, rather than designing the research/work projects and undertaking the research themselves, may increasingly rely on AI technologies to do the work. 
For now, CXC said, subjects that rely heavily on practical and project-based learning, such as Agricultural Science, Visual Arts, Music, Physical Education, Technical Drawing and Food, Nutrition and Health, will continue to have traditional SBAs. However, SBAs will be phased out for other subjects, starting with next year’s May/June exams.
In the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Exams (CAPE), the SBAs will go immediately. It will be replaced by an invigilated test, taken under more flexible conditions, that was always an alternative.  For the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exam, students will next year have the option of either the test or the SBA. SBAs at CSEC will be completely phased out in 2028
“The integrity of our qualifications is not negotiable,” CXC’s CEO and registrar, Wayne Wesley, said. “When the system that was designed to assess a student’s work can no longer reliably do so, we have an obligation to act, and to act decisively.”
REAL CONCERNS
The concerns expressed by Dr Wesley and backed by the CXC council are real. It is backed not only by global research and anecdotal information, but the findings of recently reported surveys in Jamaica showing students here, too, increasingly rely on AI to write papers and do academic tasks.
Indeed, as this newspaper reported a fortnight ago, a study by University of Technology (UTech) in information systems professor, Paul Golding, and Tiou Clarke, a lecturer in the university’s College of Business, found that 100 per cent of students at universities and colleges, and 96 per cent of those in high schools, use  AI tools in academic tasks. Approximately 87 per cent of faculty used the technologies to prepare for classes and other professional tasks.
In another study, Professor Golding found that between one half and 60 per cent of secondary students believed that the use of AI improved their “mental acuity”.
“What this means ... is that the way we teach, what we teach, the way we assess how students learn – how we learn – will need to change,” Professor Golding told The Gleaner.
The published data did not indicate what proportion of students, if any, at the various levels of the education system, used AI to cheat in writing essays or research papers. But the anecdotal evidence indicates that this is a growing problem for which institutions, from high schools to community colleges and universities, have been independently attempting to formulate solutions.