Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we’re educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types… Full bio and more links

Minister Ronald Jones has attracted heavy criticism since assuming the office of Minister of Education. His boar hog in a kitchen garden style is felt by many including BU, as not appropriate to this critical ministry. The much discussed 11-Plus Common Entrance examination is to be written next week and no doubt the perennial discussion about the relevance of the 11-Plus will surface in the media and talk shows.

Despite the above we have to give Jack his jacket. The recent National Summit on education appears to have been the brain child of Minister Jones and Principal of the UWI Cave Hill Sir Hillary Beckles. These are two men the BU family have raked over the coals. We are pleased to hear at long last a public discourse by some key stakeholders in the educational sector.

Not too long ago the Chief Education Officer in a radio interview made a statement about the performance of a couple schools. When she was asked to support her statement with empirical evidence she clammed up. Up to this day she has never felt obligated to offer evidence. At the National Summit this week the public was treated to an analysis of the performance of our children in the 11-Plus common entrance examination by Dr. Idamay Denny.

We believe this to be a significant step to examining what changes are required to improve our educational system. We should note that Dr. Denny admitted that the statistical sample used in much of her analysis was not significant (100 students). Not sure how the BU statisticians and scientists will interpret Dr. Denny’s analysis given her admission.  Compared to her boss Chief Education Dr. Wendy Griffith-Watson we should view Dr. Denny’s willingness to analyze using data as positive!

Minister of Education Jones was quoted in the Advocate newspaper that…teachers need to prepare students for life-long learning, rather than simply teaching them how to “cram for an exam. His statement reminded us of the video we watched sometime ago which we have inserted above. It seems that we have commoditized our educational system. You need to have certain qualifications to make it in Barbados. Teachers mandate should be to train our minds to add value to our society be it an artist, linguist, agriculturist etc. Why the preponderance of emphasis on doctors, lawyers, engineers etc?

Our love affair with an educational system with cracks is ignorant and belies our touted intelligence.