DESPITE reservations from some stakeholders, the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) is pressing ahead with its plan to award associate degrees to students successful in certain groupings of subjects at the body's advanced level examinations. The CXC is also seeking ways to reward students not now sitting the crucial school-leaving exams, or those passing fewer than five subjects, which allow them to qualify for most tertiary institutions. Starting August next year, the first set of associate degrees will be awarded to students achieving passes in at least seven units of the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE). CXC chairman Professor Kenneth Hall said while there were some misgivings about the CXC awarding associate degrees, the Council needs to provide students with as many options as possible, particularly at a time when more graduates will be moving across the region and the world. Prof Hall, who is also principal of the University of the West Indies, said the CXC could legitimately grant degrees. "We have checked with all the legal authorities and that is clearly beyond any doubt," he said, emphasising that sitting the associate degree was not an alternative, but an addition to sitting the CAPE. The CXC's assistant registrar, public information and customer service, Cleveland Sam, told the Observer that nine associate degrees are to be awarded, initially, all of which have Communication Studies as compulsory units. Sam said certain units were compulsory in each associate degree. For the associate degree in Business Studies, Management of Business 1 and Management of Business 2 are compulsory; while for that in Mathematics, Pure Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Statistics are compulsory. And for the associate degree in Computer Science, Computer Science 1 and Computer Science 2 are compulsory. "CXC is confident in the rigour of the CAPE programme. The student can function adequately in any university environment in the world," Sam said. The assistant registrar said York University in Canada, which recruits heavily in the Caribbean, has extended the scholarships for Caribbean students to 25. "They have been looking at the performance of the CAPE students they have been receiving and they have been very impressed," Sam added. Meanwhile, CXC registrar Dr Lucy Steward has called on the people of the Caribbean to commemorate excellent performance of the region's students. "We need to celebrate more the achievements of the many students in Jamaica and across the region who excel in our examinations," Dr Steward said to the applause of a gathering at the opening of the CXC's annual meeting at the Hilton Kingston Hotel on Thursday evening. She noted that using the CXC criteria for top award overall, 26 candidates from Jamaica met those criteria. She also announced that this year 50 candidates from Jamaica, out of 231 from 16 territories in the region, achieved grade one in at least eight CSEC subjects. The Council's chairman also said that the CXC was determined to develop a competency-based certification for the thousands of students leaving school without what he terms "the magic five subjects". He said this was necessary to assess students "leaving school without even signifying that they attended and what they can do and what they have achieved". It requires five CSEC to matriculate for many tertiary and sixth form programmes. ABOUT THE CXC . The CXC was founded in 1973 . There were approximately 600,000 subject and unit entries for CSEC and CAPE this year . Fifty candidates from Jamaica, out of 231 in the region, achieved grade one in at least eight CSEC subjects . CAPE started eight years ago as a replacement for A Level exams . 138,000 students sat the CSEC . 9,600 sat CAPE . 65 per cent of the CSEC papers received grade one to three. Reprinted from jamaicaobserver.com