As education stakeholders continue to grapple with one problem to the next, there are indications that schools will have to overcome yet another challenge in the upcoming academic year.

The latest looming setback is the issue of finding space to accommodate students who accept the option of deferral from this year’s June/July sitting of Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) exams.

Though exact figures for the number of students who will be opting for a deferral from this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) exams have yet to be confirmed, the possibility of student deferrals is one that continues to weigh on the minds of principals and school administrators islandwide.

Speaking with Our Today this morning, school principals across the parishes of St Ann, St Mary and Trelawny each indicated that, given the concern for the possible number of students who will defer from exams, provisions are being made to address the spacing issue which may arise.

According to Raymon Treasure, principal of the York Castle High School in St Ann, despite only three students from an exit examination cohort of 500 putting in deferral requests to date, options are already being explored to have students transitioned to the nearby Brown’s Town Community and Moneague colleges in the event that the number of deferrals continues to rise.

Similarly, Linvern Wright, principal at the William Knibb Memorial High School in Trelawny, said he too had seen deferral requests from approximately five of his 200-student cohort, and has as a result started giving consideration to what actions would need to be taken were this number to increase.

Of the three school reprentatives interviewed by Our Today, it was Christine Wright, vice-principal of the St Mary High School, who had recorded the most student deferrals to date.

Wright said while all avenues were being explored to ensure students felt adequately prepared to sit their examinations this year, at least 23 students of the 460 exit examination cohort have submitted deferral requests.

Though noting that deferral requests could not be guaranteed until after they had been given approval by the council, “preliminarily what we are doing is to see if we can find at least 10 spaces in case we have that amount deferring”.

The option of deferral is one in a number of relief measures the CXC implemented to allay the apprehensions of students and teachers as it relates to the sitting of upcoming exit examinations. Other measures implemented include an extension in the deadline of School Based Assessment submissions and the release of the broad exam topics for paper two.