Average or Low Scoring CXC Performers Can Succeed Too

The British Caribbean education system throughout the years has been established to give students the impression that they are failures if they do not perform exceptionally well on standardized tests such as Jamaica's Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) to warrant acceptance into a prominent high school. Furthermore, hopes are dashed when their average passes on Caribbean Exam Council (CXC) assessments will not earn them immediate acceptance into the University of the West Indies (UWI) or to universities in United States if they do not have the exorbitant fees to pay private companies to get them through the rigorous admissions process. However, where there is a will, there is a way. So, many who eventually have been given the chance to migrate have made use of the opportunities to study and become accomplished in their professions. We see their photos often in newspapers, their images on television, and hear their voices on radio programs. Although they may become recognized leaders in their own right, it is not public knowledge the path some of these successful individuals have taken to become the accomplished persons they are today. These individuals realized that they may not have been considered the best and brightest students in their own Caribbean countries but could succeed instead in other countries that have provided all persons with the chance to achieve their educational ambitions without limiting opportunities only for the brightest students. They made an effort to overcome their native countries' public education system of indifference towards average students. On the other hand, many who have now become well-known lawyers, doctors, business persons, bankers, etc. would rather maintain the secret of their enrollment in stigmatized secretarial colleges or vocational or technical schools, etc. upon completing high school. The entry level jobs that they worked at while attending colleges or universities abroad are also a chapter in their lives that they may not want to be known. Yet, they cannot deny that the difficult path taken have made them the persons who they are today. They received educational opportunities elsewhere that made them as successful as or even more successful, in some cases, than those whose path was never impeded by an education system that measures student achievement solely on a single day's performance on a test.