The growing use of artificial intelligence in education is prompting a wider rethink of how Caribbean students learn and are assessed, as the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) strengthens protocols surrounding School Based Assessments.
The changes come amid increasing concerns about academic integrity and the ability of students to use AI tools to generate work that may otherwise have been expected to demonstrate their own knowledge and skills.
AI Consultant Jim Jones believes the issue extends well beyond detecting or preventing academic dishonesty. He said CXC’s response is forcing educators to confront fundamental questions about the purpose of education in an era when technology can produce answers almost instantly.
“It’s not just about academic integrity,” Jones said.
“I think it’s also about CXC saying we’re forcing Caribbean educators and the education system to confront the question that I guess we’ve been trying to avoid for a long time, and that is, well, if AI can produce all the answers, I mean, what are we educating the students to be able to do?”
Jones said the emergence of AI affects “all aspects of the education system”, including the traditional role played by schools and teachers.
He argued that educational institutions can no longer be viewed as the primary gatekeepers of information, given the vast amount of knowledge now available through digital platforms and AI systems.
“Our teachers and our education system, our schools, our educational institutions are no longer the gatekeepers of knowledge or even of knowledge dissemination,” he said.
According to Jones, this requires a shift away from an education model centered on memorizing and reproducing information.
“It has to move away from like knowledge retention,” he said. “I think it’s no longer about regurgitation of information, but it is equipping the student to make sense of and seeing the importance of knowledge and its value.”
The growing presence of AI therefore presents schools with an opportunity to rethink what students are expected to demonstrate through assessments.
Rather than focusing solely on whether students have retained a body of information, Jones believes education must increasingly assess how students interpret, evaluate and apply knowledge.
His comments come as CXC tightens its School Based Assessment protocols amid concerns that AI tools could make it increasingly difficult to determine whether submitted work genuinely reflects a student’s abilities.
Jones said the development should not be viewed as an entirely unprecedented disruption.
“It’s nothing new,” he said, placing the rise of AI within the broader history of technological change.
“At every stage of the industrial revolution, when we transition from animal driven, like say for example, a horse driven society, to the industrial revolution, to computers and the internet, now AI is just another phase where we’re seeing AI as a tool, but it’s an advanced tool.”
The challenge for Caribbean educators, he suggested, is therefore not simply to prevent students from using AI, but to determine how the technology can be incorporated responsibly into the learning process.
That could mean placing greater emphasis on critical thinking, interpretation, problem-solving and the ability to assess the reliability and value of information.
For Jones, the emergence of AI provides an opportunity to redefine education rather than simply defend traditional methods of teaching and assessment.
The CXC reforms could consequently become part of a wider transition towards an education system in which students are taught not merely to know information, but to understand it, question it and use it effectively in a rapidly changing technological environment.