Support for schools following earthquake in Myanmar

If your school or the school where your candidates plan to sit their exams is closed, but it is safe and practical to travel, candidates may be able to sit their exams at an alternative venue. We will prioritise your application. Learn more about transferring to alternative venues. Candidates should only travel to another centre where it is safe to do so, and if they feel able to participate in the exam. You must also follow any national or local travel restrictions or guidance.

Wherever possible, please tell us if you cannot submit coursework to us, or if you are concerned about meeting any of our published submission deadlines.

The May Checkpoint test date window is 7-25 April 2025. If you think you will be unable to run tests within the test date window, please contact us so we can support you.

We know you may not be able to send scripts to us immediately, please store them securely and send them to us as soon as possible. We will mark your scripts as soon as we receive them, even if you submit them to us late. We will issue a result as soon as possible – either on our planned results day or as soon as possible afterwards.

Resource pack

If you are unable to run tests in the May 2025 test series, we can send you a Cambridge Checkpoint resource pack. This is free, and contains:

• Maths, Science, English, and English as a second language primary and lower secondary April 2023 Cambridge Checkpoint tests
• enhanced mark schemes to help teachers mark as closely as possible to Cambridge examiners
• a guidance document about administering the tests.

We can also provide an Excel spreadsheet for teachers to enter marks. For each candidate, the spreadsheet calculates summary data for each strand in a subject as well as a total score for each of the tests. This enables you to interpret candidate performance based on raw marks, considering the teaching and learning that has taken place. Please let us know if you would like us to send you the resource pack.

We acknowledge that, despite the above available options, there may be candidates in your centre who are unable to secure a result in the June 2025 exam series because they have been unable to take exams and therefore cannot receive a calculated assessment. We recognise the disappointment this may cause any candidates and families in this situation, and we share in this disappointment with them.

We have been asked by our schools whether it is possible for us to postpone and / or re-timetable any missed components. Because our syllabuses and components are taken by a wide range of candidates both in Myanmar and other countries globally, we are unable to postpone or re-timetable any components which have been missed.

The safety of staff and candidates remains the first priority. You must not try to retrieve scripts from your centre where it may be unsafe.

If you can run some tests or exams but you cannot send scripts to us because of wider disruption to in-country courier services, you must store these securely, in the correct script return envelopes / clearly labelled, in your secure storage. Wherever possible, please contact us to tell us about the situation in your centre. We can support you and offer any additional advice specific to your situation.

You / your centre colleagues must not move or transport scripts to another centre or another part of your region / country. Scripts must always be transported by a recognised courier using a trackable method of postage / delivery.

We appreciate that having to store scripts means they may reach us late and that this may impact the release of results. However, safety must remain the priority. We would like to reassure you that we will mark all scripts as quickly as possible when we receive them, and we will keep you updated about any impact on the release for results for your candidates.

We know some centres have questions about group work for Global Perspectives – below we have described some possible scenarios. If the scenarios and support measures described below are not suitable for your candidates, then please contact us. You may also wish to consider withdrawing the candidate(s) and entering them into a future series.

• Scenario 1: A candidate who has completed their group work and wants to submit it; however, other candidates in the same group do not want to submit their work. You can submit the work for one candidate and not others – you do not have to submit the work for all candidates in the same exam series.
• Scenario 2: A candidate has completed most of the group work, but not all. You can apply for 'special consideration – shortfall in coursework’, see section 5.5.5 of the Cambridge Handbook as well as the additional guidance on the Myanmar page of our website.
• Scenario 3: A candidate has not yet completed any group work and is unable to work with their original group. The candidate can complete the group work with another student – the other student does not have to be entered for Global Perspectives.

We know many of you have questions about applying to use alternative venues and / or transferring candidates to another centre to sit their exams. We have created a diagram in this factsheet to help you decide the most suitable option for your candidate(s).

• Using alternative venues – if you apply to use an alternative venue, the candidate sits some or all their exams at a different venue which may be another Cambridge school or another suitable venue. The candidates' entries remain with your centre, and we send results and certificates to you, not the alternative centre. See section 2.6 of the Cambridge Handbook.
• Transferring a candidate – candidates who need to move to another centre must sit all their exams at the new / receiving centre, and the new centre must already be registered with us. We transfer the candidate's entry to the new / receiving centre, we send results and certificates to them, and certificates are printed with the new / receiving centre information. You cannot transfer a candidate to another centre for specific syllabuses or components – they must sit all their assessments at the new centre. Therefore, if a candidate has already sat a component at your centre, including any ICT practical exams and / or speaking tests, they cannot transfer to another centre. See section 2.1.3 of the Cambridge Handbook. You should consider applying to use an alternative venue or using other support measures such as ‘special consideration – absent for an acceptable reason’ and / or withdrawing the candidate and entering them into a future exam series.

Yes, you can use both options but not for the same candidate(s). A candidate can either sit some of their exams at your centre and some at an alternative venue or they can be transferred to a different Cambridge centre and sit all their exams there.

You can apply to use alternative venues for some of your candidates and transfer other candidates to a different Cambridge centre.

If you apply to use an alternative venue and / or to transfer one or more candidates to a different centre, we will make sure you have the question papers you need as part of approving your application.

If you are unable to run science practicals in your centre because of the ongoing impact of the earthquake, or because the earthquake means your candidates have been unable to fully prepare for the exam, then you may wish to consider applying for special consideration – absent for an acceptable reason for that component. There is more information available on our website about how to apply.

Unfortunately, we cannot allow you to complete speaking tests remotely because we must ensure the security and integrity of the exam is maintained – if you are unable to run speaking tests in your centre then you can apply for ‘special consideration – absent for an acceptable reason’ for that component. There is more information available on our website about how to apply. For certain syllabuses, this may mean candidates are unable to achieve an endorsement, see section 3.4.10 of the Cambridge Handbook.