Submitted by Wayne R. Pilgrim-Cadogan
Over the past few years the government has being preaching over and over at every opportunity for the country to turn to entrepreneurship as an alternative for those who have been displaced from their jobs and school leavers who were about to enter the work force. So much so that it has become a buzzword for some. There are other agencies such as the Barbados Manufacturers Association, The Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme, The Barbados Small Business Association and others who over the years have been advocating innovation, buy local, self employment, and creating new products from local materials and food crops as a means of creating their own employment as an answer to a dwindling job market..
Every two years there is the Prime Minister Award of $75,000.00 to the winner of the National Innovation Award. The purpose of this award by the government is to bring out the creativity and innovation among Barbadians. One would think that educational institutions would be teaching its students along the lines of innovation and creativity. There are plenty of indigenous materials and food crops that are available to Barbadians for experimentation in creating innovative products rather than using foreign products. I am at a lost as to why at one of the Secondary Schools Science & Nutrition class, that a teacher would tell the entire class to bring Strawberries, Kiwi Fruit and Grapes for a project when there are so many fruits here that is currently in season, that could have been used as a substitute.
I find it very difficult for a teacher to make such demands on a class, especially in these hard economic times for some families where there might not even be an income coming into that household. What about the child in that class that might have gone to school without even having breakfast or anything to eat or drink? Furthermore, it could be very detrimental to that child’s parent, or parents to fork out the minimum of $35.00 for a class project.
This is going against the grain of what the government is advocating, as well as all the other organizations especially the Barbados Manufacturing Association with its Buy Local campaign and is an insult to the Science, Technology and Innovation Department for all the hard work that it is doing in getting Barbadians to be innovative. It would appears that innovation is not being taught in the schools, does this means that what the government is advocating is not being adhered to by the schools and that the schools have their own curriculum? One would think that the schools would be singing from the same hymn sheet as that of the government? But evidently this is not the case in this circumstance.
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