Leonardo Blair, Staff ReporterTHE OVERSEAS Examination Council is preparing an official report for the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) and Cambridge in London aimed at determining how scores of students who were unable to sit scheduled examinations on Thursday because of flood rains will be dealt with.
While he was unable to say how many students missed their exams because of the rains, Hector Stephenson, deputy director of the Overseas Examinations Council, said yesterday that his office has been getting individual reports from examination centres where students who were unable to make it to their own schools, turned up for exams and were accommodated.
"I couldn't say how many students were affected," said Mr. Stephenson, "but we are getting individual scripts from persons who were not able to make it to their centres on Thursday, 50 students did not turn up for the IT (Information Technology) examination at the Edwin Allen High School (Clarendon)," he explained. The examination at the school, which had a register of 100 candidates, was one of the four O'level examinations slated for Thursday at centres across the island. The others included, Clothing and Textile, Mechanical Engineering (CXC) and Human and Social Biology (GCE).
Mr. Stephenson said that despite not being able to quote the number of students missing exams ahead of next week, he expected the majority of the students affected by the weather to come from Clarendon and Ocho Rios which were the areas hardest hit by heavy rains and flooding. He said he knew of at least two examination centres which were not open because of the weather - Lennon High and Ebony Park in Clarendon.
Of the four examinations which were scheduled for sitting on Thurs-day, so far Information Technology appears to have registered the highest number of absentees. Mr. Stephenson however, explained that the paper missed on Thursday was "the less weightier" of the test papers in the IT CXC examination.
Students who were hoping to re-sit the paper he said could not be allowed to do so as the paper is a regional exam and any decision for a re-sit would have to come from the regional heads. He said the senior assistant registrar of the CXC, Baldwin Hercules, is already in the island and is currently visiting schools to assess the situation.
The Gleaner also received reports that some students who were unable to make it to their individual centres were turned away by invigilators when they attempted to sit their examination at other centres. It is said they were told their names were not on the list.
