Dr. Donald Peters, president of The College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago (COSTAATT), has added his voice to concerns about the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) offering an associate degree. In a letter to the Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education in Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Peters said every Government in the region should have concerns about the credibility, rigour and context of the associate degree. According to him, CXC is using high school subjects derived from the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) programme to offer a college degree. "But CAPE is a high school programme and cannot be used as the basis for offering degrees," he said. The CXC Associate Degree was introduced last year and it is expected that the first set will be awarded next year. Students who gain grade one to five passes in seven units of the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE), including the one-unit core subjects - Caribbean studies and communication studies - automatically qualify for an associate degree. Dr. Peters said the current high school curriculum in the region does not adequately develop a student's analytical, decision making, or negotiating skills. According to him, these skills are usually developed by a college or a university. "It is surprising therefore that the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) which is neither a university nor college could decide without regional consultation with community colleges to offer an associate degree. In this scenario a student could acquire a college degree without ever attending college," he said. Mr. Peters continued: "Should governments of the Caribbean ratify CXC as a college with authority to grant degrees, they will appear to be diluting the establishment of their countries' community college systems, and open the floodgates for any organisation remotely associated with higher education to offer degrees." But Chairman of the CXC, Professor Kenneth Hall, has defended the associate degree programme, charging that it is of a high standard. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 36th Meeting of the CXC Council at the Hilton Kingston hotel, last Thursday, Professor Hall said the CXC was legally allowed to provide an associate degree. "There is no question about it. It is in the Charter (as) we checked all the legal authorities," he said. Reprinted from jamaica-gleaner.com