Aug 21, 2026 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

(Kaieteur News) – A report in yesterday’s Kaieteur News that some 35,000 students across the Caribbean absconded from the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations ought to make every education policymaker sit up and take note. The figure is startling, but before we begin issuing detention for examinations absenteeism, there is a more fundamental question that must be answered: what exactly does “absconded” mean?

We do not know whether the 35,000 represents students who registered for CSEC and failed to appear for any examination at all, or students who registered for several subjects and simply failed to turn up for some of them. That distinction is critical, because the two circumstances point to very different problems, and any serious assessment of the state of Caribbean education must begin with a proper interpretation of the data.