By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

A national high school examination has to be re-written and redistributed following an “examination security breach,” the Ministry of Education confirmed yesterday.

Education Director Lionel Sands said in a statement that a Bahamas Junior Certificate (BJC) English Language Paper 2 examination was “compromised” at one of the examination centres. Mr Sands said the breach was due to the “sitting of an examination before the authorised test date.”

As a result, Mr Sands said the present paper has been made void and must now be re-written and redistributed before any future sittings of the examination.

“The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MOEST) is working in concert with the Examination Centre to perform a more detailed investigation of the breach and will recommend an outcome based on those results,” he said. “The MOEST can assure the public that it takes very seriously any breach of security when it comes to our national examinations. Maintaining the security of the examination material is essential to upholding the integrity of the testing services.”

He added: “We apologise for any inconvenience which may be caused due to the change in the examination date and ask parents of BJC candidates to keep informed about any changes in the examination schedule. We will keep the public informed as necessary.”

According to the government’s website, the BJC is an examination curriculum designed by the MOEST, which is typically undertaken after three years of study by junior high students at the end of the ninth grade.

The examinations, which lead to the award of the BJC, are designed to measure mastery of the curriculum in the core subjects.

Ninth grade students at public secondary schools and anyone over the age of 10 at private schools are eligible to write the BJC. In addition, private candidates who are at least 16 years of age are eligible to write the exam.

In-school candidates are registered by their schools by December for BJC exams being held in the following May/June, according to the website.