JTA urges national AI education policy after CXC overhauls SBA framework

The Jamaica Teachers Association is pressing the government to craft a national policy on artificial intelligence in schools, after the Caribbean Examinations Council overhauled its school-based assessment framework in response to the rapid spread of generative AI.

JTA president Mark Malabver said CXC had concluded that AI was undermining the authenticity of school-based assessments. For some examinations, the council is moving away from SBAs and introducing what is commonly called a paper three instead.

School-based assessment has long required students, working with teachers, to develop research tasks and responses that contribute to their grades. Malabver compared that model to tertiary thesis work under a supervisor, arguing it remains a valuable part of learning.

He said CXC and CSEC had been caught off guard. AI has been present for some time and is widely used across daily life, he noted, yet there was no proactive plan to manage its impact on assessment. Scrapping SBAs, in his view, is a knee-jerk step that removes an important element of the learning process and shifts students toward rigid, highly controlled exams in which not every learner will thrive.

What the JTA wants, Malabver said, is a policy that sets out how AI should be used, cited, and incorporated into assessment instruments. He stressed that AI is not going away, and that students and teachers must be equipped to use it appropriately, including on ethical grounds.

He pointed to an ACD conference he attended weeks earlier where AI, technology, and ethics dominated discussion. Jamaica and the wider Caribbean, he argued, too often trail technology rather than shape how it is applied. The association is therefore calling for national dialogue among educators and other stakeholders so a clear classroom policy can emerge.

From where the JTA sits, Malabver said, the union has not been included in any such talks. Government commentary on AI in education has so far amounted to soft talk, he added, without the broad stakeholder process needed to produce workable guidance.

Teachers, he said, also see practical upside: used properly, AI can make their work easier. The priority, he maintained, is ensuring schools, students, and the wider society understand how to use the technology responsibly.