The George Brathwaite Column – Investing in Education
The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think — rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men.
– Bill Beattie (18th Century Scottish physician and poet).
There appears to be pockets of acceptance in Barbados that education, broadly defined, has been a key agent of personal and national development. This sentiment is manifested both at the micro and macro levels of the society. Beginning in the 1950s with Cabinet Government under Premier Grantley Adams and the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) and, continuing through most of the last 50 years, Barbados saw the expansion of basic primary and secondary education, and the growth of tertiary and vocational education.
Education has proven to be the springboard for the development of human capacity in Barbados. Barbadians rightfully place a premium on education as a liberator, empowerment tool, and vehicle for upward social mobility. From the cane-fields to the boardrooms, and from the butchers’ stalls to the classrooms, a skilled workforce emerged, thereby, contributing to the modernisation process in Barbados. Progressively, education allowed for the exercise of personal freedom to be better expressed in a social democratic society.
Incidentally, Barbados’ Ambassador to CARICOM Robert ‘Bobby’ Morris, who is a Democratic Labour Party (DLP) stalwart, former trade union representative, and historian recently contends that “education is the most important thing we [Barbadians] have to focus on in the next 50 years as it has been our main focus for the past 50 years.” This assertion should be a wake-up call for some in our midst.
New enrolment at the University of the West Indies is not encouraging. There is a perilous drop since the ‘desperate’ but ill-conceived turn which saw the provision of ‘free’ tertiary education for our nation’s people being stopped. Affordability is now a cause for major concern and it is very likely that many of our youth could become lost. The country’s education system is at this time in need of vital reforms and transitions for the next stage of development. The work to be done must be implemented with the type of innovations and pragmatism necessary for progressing Barbados through the next 50 years as Ambassador Morris would have suggested.
Some of the political elites have kicked away the socio-economic ladder upon which Barbadians made good their escapes from the bowels of poverty and the belly of want. How could a political party be so backward and devoid of ingenuity to prefer abandoning the project of ‘free’ tertiary education, particularly, when the outcome of education can be used to rekindle economic growth? Did the DLP not envision that free education can be fittingly deployed as a market lever or economic tool with the means to improve economic growth and mitigate increasing poverty? Dr. David Browne, only a few years ago, assuredly stated that: “Free education provided the mechanism by which hundreds of families got on the social escalator out of poverty to economic progress and enfranchisement.”
The fact is that Barbados experienced virtual stagnation and very minimal economic growth over the last eight years. Hence, it is incomprehensible why the DLP government under Prime Minister Freundel Stuart would fail the population by pulling the education mat from under the poor? Today’s youth and the underemployed rely on ‘free’ education for their escape from deviance. It becomes more reprehensible that the very DLP government could have in 2014 so savagely ripped the heart out of our youth and gutted life-long learners wanting to access ‘free’ tertiary education. The current DLP alarmingly displays lack of empathetic appreciation for Barbados’ history of social and economic development.
As a maturing nation, Barbadians ought not to remain preoccupied with who will pay for the delivery of quality free education, and who must benefit as a result of the national sacrifices, without fully exploring all possible options. The DLP’s focus remain blinded by the contaminated thinking that has also done damage to the very idea of higher education being instrumental for achieving economic growth and bringing prosperity to all. Stuart’s deafening silence and abject refusal to present a clear vision for Barbados happens to be the obscurity not allowing visibility beyond the permissible term limit.
Certainly, and up to at least 2013, education was understood across the political divide as making a necessary contribution, in concert with other factors, to the success of national efforts to boost productivity, competitiveness and economic growth. Education has been paramount in setting the framework for civility and stability within Barbados, creating access and opportunities for a population emerging out of the grips of colonial exploitation and underdevelopment.
Education policies since Barbados attained independence in 1966 were driven by leadership that was cognisant of the island’s limitations, but aware of the enormous benefits that could be reaped from having a universally educated society. Persons like the Right Excellent Errol Barrow, ‘Tom’ Adams, and Owen Arthur among others were confident that investments in human capital would become even more important, as Barbados lifted the entirety of its population. Education plies to the societal development of capability and is readily relished when there is the gravitas of people empowerment.
Access to free education has, through its various avenues, reduced the incidence of poverty and fostered prosperity in Barbados. The imposition of tuition fees placed a roadblock before the potential students and their struggling parents. The DLP’s implementation of tuition fees, coming during a period when the country was already gasping under several austerity measures, is proving counterproductive.
Why would the political elites close their eyes to facts, and be adamant that the government must mercilessly bleed the society with taxes while abandoning the free education project? The rash impulses by a fumbling DLP, known to be critical of opponents and blind to the potential gains of education, will no doubt cloud out the voices of the advocates. This crop of policymakers and technocrats will remain dismissive of the investment, seeing only the financial and social costs which they readily insist are burdens on the treasury.
No one doubts that financing tertiary education is expensive and rising; but Barbados has been willing to make the huge sacrifices at the personal and societal levels. The discussion must step outside the hallways of economic formulae and the constraints of accountants’ numbers. By way of history and something that we ought to be proud, the provision of ‘free education’ in Barbados overturned the colonial order. Education would have largely benefited the wealthy and privileged – defined not only by money but by race – prior to the likes of National Heroes Adams and Barrow.
Barbados has come a long way since independence, although it now seems that the country is stuck in reverse gear. For the most part of the last 50 years, increasing demand by potential students and private sector employers as well as successive governments for tertiary education graduates was a sure indicator that education does play a major role in effecting national development.
Sadly, the Prime Minister and Cabinet demonstrated little innovation; they announced rhetorical promises built around delayed bursaries. They rolled back years of national advance while manifesting the DLP’s antithetical stance to the fact that education remains the key for growth and rebuilding Barbados. It is crucial that ‘free’ education must once again occupy a central role in any new administration governing Barbados’ national development.
Barbadians can draw direct inference in terms of investment and sacrifice from the virtue of acquiring a quality education. Perhaps, now is the time for revisiting the nation’s collective notions on free education. Barbadians should make the necessary sacrifices so that our returns on investments are palatable to the paying society. Importantly, Barbados ought to recommit to the craft of shaping a thinking society. What inherently matters is not class, status, race, gender, or even the height of educational attainment, but the capacity to have an overwhelming majority of the population that can think and have fair accessibility to higher education.
(Dr. George C. Brathwaite is a researcher and political consultant, and up until recently, he was editor of Caribbean Times (Antigua). Email: brathwaitegc@gmail.com )
Barbados Underground 
The educated illiterates in parliament signed their owned demise when they eliminated taxpayer funded education….added more taxes, but are wasting the taxpayer’s money to the tune of millions of dollars with useless independence celebrations and visits from the buckingham palace parasites which is unfair for taxpayers to also foot that bill…while people struggle, students are unable to remain in school, unemployment is high, crime and gun violence is high and myriad other social problems.
The electorate need to send this government a message….”not one effing seat”.
Ministers of government and members of parliament. …the educated illiterates, taxpayer’s money is wasted on them….the weakest links in the black race.
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This is George’s most idiotic article to date. Nothing in it makes any logical sense.
First he starts out regurgitating a quote from some dead Scotsman to the effect that education should be about having your own logical thoughts -rather than regurgitating the thoughts of others…
Then to reinforce the kind of ‘education’ he has, he goes on to quote other ‘great thinkers’ like Bobby Morris – Caricom ambassador (who secured the fishing agreement)… that “education is the most important thing we [Barbadians] have to focus on in the next 50 years as it has been our main focus for the past 50 years.”
Shiite man!! even if this statement is generically true, it MUST logically mean that what we consider ‘education’ in NOT REAL EDUCATION ….otherwise George would be able to generate his own logical thoughts….. AND 50 years of universal free ‘education’ in Barbados would NOT have brought us to the point where we are now …. up shit street.
Finally George …. if ‘education’ was as valuable as you are putting it up to be, then how come Bajans only take it up in droves when it is FREE?
What does it tell you that NO ONE MISSES Reggae on the hill or Kadooment for lack of funds … but UWI enrollment is in jeopardy despite easy loan enticements…?
…not that what we call ‘education’ …and what you have TONS of…. is a lotta shiite.
But both you AND Bobby are 100% correct about the value of TRUE EDUCATION.
What wunna need to find out is what EDUCATION REALLY IS….
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Tertiary education is not free in the UK. It is not free in Canada. It is not free in the USA. But poor little Barbados is supposed to have it for free?
That is the surest route to a further decline in the quality of the university. Standards at UWI have already fallen dramatically from the early days in the 1950s and 1960s. Don’t make it worse by enrolling the masses in overcrowded lecture halls and dumbing down the curriculum.
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The government should spend more on education, but it should be spending on technical subjects like engineering, computer science and the physical sciences, and on apprenticeship and internship programs to teach practical skills.
No more useless book learning in crowded classrooms.
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On that I have to agree with Chad…if you are going to use taxpayer’s money to fund education…make sure it’s in disciplines that are useful to the island…use the models of Germany, Japan, India and Scandinavia….ya cant go wrong …..more techical colleges and useful education, skills training etc, which are more useful than political science…what they hell is that….just look at the quality of politicians and tell me that is a discipline that anyone with a brain would want to be associated with….and many other subjects on the UWI curricula that is pure crap…..absolutely useless in the real world…just suitable for keeping the island in the dark ages….20 years behind everyone else.
Use dusciplines than ya can EXPORT…, your people are your only real and best resources.
…….economist……what the hell is that…, not one of them can help bring down the deficit, yet the island is riddled with them…….useless.
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@ Brother Bush Tea.
“Knowledge dwells in heads of men, replete with thoughts of other men.
Wisdom dwells in heads of men attentive on their own”
This is indeed a “stellarly” inane submission (as are all of George’s submissions of late)
But, in retrospect, if each of you notes the topics that are being submitted by the “researcher and political scientist” one will note a “pattern”
He is not as stupid and simple minded as many of us beleive him to be.
He is “culling”
He puts out his seemingly as(s)inine comments replete with bovine material befitting the Moyne Commission era and sits back (like David Come Sing a Song?) and reaps the scholarly imput of those of us who feel inclined to try to educate the seeming dufus.
While he compiles the submissions for the Manifesto of the Covenant of Hope People.
By so doing “THE POLITICAL SCIENTIST” and the party that he is representing is able to cull the requisite echolalia that, when it is published prior to election time makes us readers feel good.
It is c type of intellectual doggie pulling or clitoral stimulation of the ego which “political scientist” know well to do.
Much like practiced echolalia.
Leh de ole man mek it simple for you.
De village idiot is constantly the target of heckling but you, you always got a kind word for he ingrunt scvunt, and a pint and a half of Alleyne Arfur for him.
Ultimately you is he “friend” and he will do anything for you due to this simple manipulation of his simpleton reasoning.
It is much like how a new female pally george whom i have eased my scrutinization of, because of the representations of 5 others here, realizes that AC, the ingrunt one is really a scvunt, BUT, and here is the mystery of many mysteries, agrees with that dufus on multiple points, and they now have a bond.
The sad thing about this is that, even if you were to write out the exact words to use to transmute lead to gold, IN BOLD CAPS, before george and his tribe of political swine, the incoming Troika, would be totally incapable of deciphering it AND BEREFT OF ANY SKILLS TO USE IT.
They would probably intone it and, being the waste foops that they are, change their own feet to lead in the process, oooops that would not be a transmutation since they already have leaden feet.
The problem that I have with both these tribe of monkeys is that they are always trying to be smart and rape the citizens of their thoughts.
There is nothing called collaboration amongst them but whey do i use that part of speech of the third person objective case?
I mispoke, it should be us.
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Free access to university is the key for a broad basis of the middle class.
No emancipation without education! THAT is simply the reason why the black community in the US does not catch up with the other ethnical groups there. Remember, slavery ended in the US not before 1970 (abolishment of Jim Crow laws). Remember, black is a synonym for poverty in the US. How can a group of poor and still discriminated people access university when you pay 20,000 – 50,000 USD for this service per year? No affirmative action, no big memorial days, no president Obama, nothing will make up for this disadvantage. If the black community had free access to university in the US, the youth would see a real chance to escape poverty. University degree would solely depend on your personal effort to learn.
It might be true that you pay for education in the US, UK and Canada. However, we should look beyond at those countries where social justice is a principle, namely Scandinavia and Germany. There is a reason why Germany has a trade surplus of 310 billion EUR per year (even trumping China) and Britain a trade deficit of 165 billion EUR per year. That is a difference of nearly half a trillion. No trade without an innovative and highly skilled workforce.
The next government must return to free education for the basic level (B.A.) – at least for families earning less than 100,000 BBD per year and maybe in combination with a sufficient graduation at school. Otherwise Bim goes the same way as Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean.
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/new-zealander-s-keen-to-ditch-the-queen-and-seek-independent-state-when-she-passes-away-new-poll-a7228141.html
Even NZ is seeimg the light….no one wants blight to follow them forever.
The education system was not designed to benefit ALL the people, it was designed to be a process of elimination, just look at the scum for keaders…all with certificates if one kind or anithrr….none with a moral or ethical core.
Then….look at the business people who control the leaders, the white collar criminal who cintrol the leaders….most of whom did not finish school, read Leroy Parris…and others……or only had a high school education….read Peter Harris….and others.
Did you get my drift now.
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I am not too sure what the original article’s objective was. Judging from the various types of responses most seem to have had the same difficulties.
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But there are some nuggets of truth scattered here and there. The most important being that education is a public good and should remain so because we need to ensure equality of opportunity to access it. It is only valuable when those who can benefit pr want to benefit should receive it ,otherwise we would be wasting scarce taxpayers money. Which we all pay, even the poor. Broad education ‘S purpose is to teach us how to think and how to learn. with that basic skill we can do anything that our heart desires. Unfortunately many people collect certificayes ,diplomas,write peer reviewde articles in prestigious journals and at the end of the day make no useful contribution to the society in which they live. Yes Education is necessary for economic and social progress but…..
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@ Tron
How do you manage to make a US based argument and then apply the conclusion to Barbados?
Barrow and company saw the OBVIOUS need to provide basic educational tools to recently emancipated masses back in the 60s …and did so… at great costs..
If you seriously think that our children in 2016 still need such ‘catch-up’ assistance in order to keep up with others in the society, …then some shiite is badly wrong bout here.
The US will never institute a ‘free education affirmative action’ for Blacks because their decision makers have no interest in the enfranchisement of minority Blacks in their country…
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Please forgive the obvious typos in the above : i.e certificates, peer-reviewed,etc
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@Bush Tea
Good point. I use USA as an argumentum e contrario, as an warning example what happens when tertiary education is abandonded. On the opposite, I introduced Scandinavia and Germany as examples why free tertiary education is important even for the most developed countries.
Bim needs free tertiary education to secure the (partial) success of emancipation and to improve efficiency and quality of services.
More suggestions on imrpoving quality of education will follow …
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An we call weself an educate people. Really, we do. Now dis ole man wid he diabetes … wunna gunna stupse!!! Ya heah?!!!!
For Christ’s sake … the bulk of students on the Hill in the polic-sci and humanities disciplines (which are fecking CRUCIAL for development) seem to be single mothers with a level of literacy on a par with the average BU poster — that’s to say, a level that wouldn’t get them into one of the more shite universities in a grown-up country.
De ole man say: Ya feel me?
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The original poster, with his PhD from the Hill, in the first five words of his first sentence:
“There appears to be pockets of acceptance …”
No. See, the subject here is “pockets”, which is a plural noun, so it needs a plural form of the verb. There appear to be pockets of acceptance …
You try that shite at postgraduate level in the FIRST sentence of an essay in a university in a grown-up country, you might as well start packing your bags.
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…
I agree with some commentators (eg Bush Tea) that tertiary eduction needs to be improved in this country to give back some value for the taxpayer.
We need:
a greater emphasis on natural sciences, less social sciences
a more selective style of exams (not everybody needs to pass)
obligatory internships during the university holiday (eg at Frustrated Businessman 😉 so the students smell the coffee and do not tell the audiance to “blame and shame” everybody who increases prices more than 2 % after the last tax-hammer.
lessons on efficiency, planning, work ethic, integrity and transparency
lessons on practical abilities …
less essays and more questions requiring practical solutions, since one of the main problems of this country is lamenting and appeasing where an ax is needed.
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Interesting to hear that Dean St.Hill and Patrick ‘Salt’ Bellamy will host the next Central Bank sponsored news event to be broadcast on CBC TV8 this Thursday.
Muy interesante indeed.
>
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The island is small so I dont know how well a co-op program for university students will work there….but…they can also co-op in different countries/islands.
Top universities in North America use them, they open many doors internationally and the networking, experience and future job prospects, opportunities to be consultations and/or owning your own business….is phenomenal.
It’s time to stop with the small island, small minded, british bred mentality already…the present model is going nowhere real fast.
Many of my relatives used those available co-op programs and never regretted it.
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RE Dis Ole Man September 6, 2016 at 1:55 PM #
The original poster, with his PhD from the Hill, in the first five words of his first sentence:
“There appears to be pockets of acceptance …”
No. See, the subject here is “pockets”, which is a plural noun, so it needs a plural form of the verb. There appear to be pockets of acceptance …
You try that shite at postgraduate level in the FIRST sentence of an essay in a university in a grown-up country, you might as well start packing your bags.
NOT TRUE I READ WORSE THAN THIS DAILY FROM UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN THE USA
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The original poster with the PhD from the Hill asks, apparently mystified:
“How could a political party be so backward and devoid of ingenuity to prefer abandoning the project of ‘free’ tertiary education.”
There is no such thing as “free” education, tertiary or otherwise. Everywhere, somebody pays. Somebody pays the teachers, somebody pays for the labs and the electricity and the maintenance of the buildings. Somebody pays for everything, nothing is free.
So it’s a simple equation: are you going to give free, university-level access to education to 100 people who struggle with the most basic sentences in their mother tongue, or are you going to employ 12 besuited and tenured dickwads in the Ministry of Education to do the work of three? Transforming UWI’s Department of Victimhood-and-Everyone-Owes-Me-A-Living into an actual, grown-up Department of History would undoubtedly help.
Dis ole man say: like me on Facebook, wunna heah?!!!
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Ah, “Dr” Porgie, bless. You got your degree from one of those third-tier Caribbean diploma mills. Ah lie?
In your tiny and ill-educated universe, an eight year old with Tay-Sachs is simply on the threshold of the Rapture into Righteousness, ah lie?
Christ, man, just watch the cricket when you can, and please stop boring us with your third-rate medical knowledge. Please. Ya heah?!!! Ah lie?!!!
Like me on Facebook … stupid thought and smiley face, random use of upper case.
Yes, what’s wrong with Bim’s education system is blindingly obvious to anybody who’s [see what I did with the apostrophe there] read a book since dey leff skool, ya heah??!!!
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NO I WENT TO UWI LIKE SOME OF THE BEST IN THE CARRIBEAN
WAS TAUGHT BY SOME OF THE BEST IN THE CARRIBBEAN
THE GUYS AT THE third-rate medical SCHOOLS ALL READ THE SAME FIRST RATE TEXT BOOKS
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“The best in the Caribbean”, of course, Dr. Porgie, is a term that raises a lot of questions.
“Dr” Georgie … wunna still awaitin on lil baby Jeebus to rapture we right into [randomly capitalized] Righteousness wid de idiot Tea? Ah lie? … cricket … Noah …. Job … Tay and, indeed, Sachs.
As we blessed Lawd an savya Jeesus Kris’ did say unto we on a hot spring day in Judea: how dat new silly mid off doin’ fa de Samaria team? Well kept, Jesus, well kept, sir!
Like me on Facebook.
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Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.
PROVERBS 26:4 -5
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“opportunities to be consultants and/or owning your own business….are phenomenal.”
The grammar and error police are out and about…ha-ha.
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“Dr” Porgie enlightens us thus:
“Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.”
You misquoted, you idiot dunce. You can’t even get this right?
Exclamation, smiley face, random use of upper case.
Like me on Facebook!!!!!!
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@ Tron September 6, 2016 at 2:11 PM
It is hard to disagree with your prescriptions here, but when you assess where we are failing as a country you will see the error of your medicine as it pertains specifically to Barbados.
Here is the hint…
When our ‘second rate’ graduates emigrate …..or when foreigners are invited to come and take control of our asse(t)s here, the ACTUAL technical performance of these ‘second rate’ graduates is quite impressive.
It is uncanny!
…From as far back as Intel…
…Formerly bankrupt National Banks make impressive profits;
…Mediocre ‘Light & Power’ companies become star performers within foreign Emeras
…Banks Holdings problems quickly become star performers under spanish control
Bob Marley tried to explain the phenomenon of ‘mental slavery’ but we keep missing the message.
@ Jack(ass) Boremann
Boss… why don’t you kiss ….. oops ah mean….. get thee behind Bushie nuh.
Thanks.
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@ David September 6, 2016 at 2:14 PM
“Interesting to hear that Dean St.Hill and Patrick ‘Salt’ Bellamy will host the next Central Bank sponsored news event to be broadcast on CBC TV8 this Thursday.
Muy interesante indeed. “
So David do you see this as a move to prepare the Bajan chatterati for what is around the corner?
Is David Ellis no longer on the Guv’s Xmas list?
A devaluation or to put it more euphemistically, a downward adjustment of the peg that aligns the Bajan dollar with the U S $ is the preferred (most efficient) method to reduce the conspicuous consumption habit (living off other people’s money) right across the board and to shift demand from imported items to locally grown and produced items especially food and drink.
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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/itt-tech-shuts-campuses-crackdown-article-1.2780270
This is how vulnerable students are when they are dependent on funding for education….130 campuses in 39 states for 50 years….all a scam by ITT TECH, they were advertising ad nauseum all through the 90s and as recently as last month….on all channels.
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@Miller
Given the state of the economy journalist with some financial acumen/track record should be leading the discussion. Salt is a DJ and Dean although an intelligent sort is not a financial journalist like Hoyos for example.
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WELL WELL
GLAD TO HEAR THAT ITT TECH CLOSE
THERE ARE OTHERS THAT WANT SHUTTING DOWN
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News: Certain food prices up 10 % in Massa Supaduba Center! Thank you Chris for economic serfdom!
Massive inflation without any economic growth. Reminds me of Maduro.
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@ George Brathwaite:
“New enrolment at the University of the West Indies is not encouraging. There is a perilous drop since the ‘desperate’ but ill-conceived turn which saw the provision of ‘free’ tertiary education for our nation’s people being stopped. Affordability is now a cause for major concern and it is very likely that many of our youth could become lost. The country’s education system is at this time in need of vital reforms and transitions for the next stage of development. The work to be done must be implemented with the type of innovations and pragmatism necessary for progressing Barbados through the next 50 years as Ambassador Morris would have suggested.”
Why should the State continue to invest in so-called university education when the returns are as measurable as the water thrown down Maxwell pond? Aren’t the members of the present Cabinet all graduates of the UWI (except of course for possibly Dr. Lowe and that self-taught professor of everything under the sun Kellman)? Is that what the UWI is producing as leaders?
Why educate people to university level if the only opportunities open to them are to be hewers of wood and drawers of water to be just cooks, cleaners and security guards at Hyatt and Sandals?
If you were smart enough you would have realized by now that the move afoot is to close down the Cave Hill campus in its present form. There is no future for that Campus. Its death knell would be the pending closure (aka restructuring) of the Law Faculty which has been the raison d’être for its existence for many years.
Who needs so many lawyers in a digital future of statute law anyway?
What should be more of an interest and concern is what has become of the proposal to create a single tertiary education institution called the University College of Barbados by merging the BCC, Polytechnic and Cave Hill Campus.
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Why do successful universities do that Cave Hill does not???
As a de facto “Hive” comprised of different bees from different colonies, the Cave Hill University should have first attracted a cadre of thinkers, their ethos and direction being led by the Management of the UWI in general, and failing in that, by its local impotent management structure, I,e. the now toothless Sir Hilary.
As a concentration of the optimal HR and intellectual congregation of minds, this tertiary institution should have the most profound impact on its student populations, its coterminous business audiences, the wider local captive population AND, since we are talking about a pan Caribbean entity, it is obvious that it should have a significant impact on the minds/operations of its regional (and international) graduates.
That, by the way, IS JUST THE THEOSOPHICAL ASPECT of the operating environment of the university as it continues daily to attract practical collaborations with businesses through said highly skilled staff at its place of operations and pursued a diurnal promotion, and propagation, of this “revised mantra”
The same way attending Yale brings with it a “carte Blanche” entry certificate to the world of work, such should be the attendant laurels of a UWI attendance.
I fear discoursing on what the attendant elements of attending our medical Mona, Law, at Cave Hill, and Architecture unit, at St Augustine, should be doing, as such relates to being the nexus of powerful economic nests in the region, will only get de ole man vex.
Need I say that de ole man may be among those who seem to have a strong, and not too complimentary opinion, of the UWI and its non existent “civic engagement programming”
And you may ask “what the Ef is that?”, to which de ole man will respond “that” relates to the proactive, but now non existent, program/strategy that the UWI should have long engaged in vis a vis how it actively pursued “meeting a relevant civic goals initiative” as central to its economic decisions, (read revenue generation) by structuring indigenous, targeted teaching, research, technology and business development programs and to assiduously transmute such programs into bespoke outreaches for local, and regional, and international use.
Simply put – Teaching English to non English Rich Latin Americans (using distance learning and total immersion classes) collaborations between its sciences and technology departments with business houses or research and development through bilateral funding, of course people going say dem does do some of those things now but, and here is the clincher, “how do they do it? On what basis are the projects chosen? And what are their outcomes?”
The latter part of this post is quite extensive a topic and is one that the ole man, would prefer not to discuss cause, since I know de shenanigans wid de Robinsons and nuff uh dese Deans and ting, um going be a tome
However, suffice it to say that, “producing snow cone carts, year after year, whose construct can only operate in a region where the ambient temperature is 68 to 70 yet you deploy your products (both people and produce) in regions where Bob Marley’s “96 degrees in the shade” are instructive, seems counter intuitive, at least and, with all the so called brainiacs at UWI, as their current malaise clearly confirms, what is being practiced there IS DEFINITELY NOT WORKING!!!
But who be de ole man to comment pun dese tings doah?
Come leh we wuk up and have a good time…
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Subject verb agreement is atrocious, (…are instructive Whuloss)
de IPad is not too “review friendly”, read when you done bird picking all dese words wid a finger at 4 and 5 o’clock, you does doan spend too much time reviewing lolol
De ole man claim “grammariticus Stinkliaritus” a medical condition where one cannot put the right nouns and verbs and parts of speech together.
It is part of the group of diseases which commences as “decimalus incorrectus Stinkliaritus” where even if you are the Minister of Finants, you do not know where to put a decimal point on a national tax. Heheheheh
If wunna doubt me as to its impact axe Dr Georgie Porgie who will confirm de ole man lie, sorry claim. I was gine change dat but I did already hit de submit comments button…
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The solution is so simple that the educated we never get it………..all we have to do is change secondary schools to colleges.
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What is interesting about the video?
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@millertheannunaki September 6, 2016 at 8:30 PM and @ pieceuhderockyeahright September 7, 2016 at 6:01 AM …
”Why should the State continue to invest in so-called university education when the returns are as measurable as the water thrown down Maxwell pond? Aren’t the members of the present Cabinet all graduates of the UWI…Is that what the UWI is producing as leaders?” AND
“As a concentration of the optimal HR and intellectual congregation of minds, this tertiary institution should have the most profound impact on its student populations, its coterminous business audiences, the wider local captive population AND, since we are talking about a pan Caribbean entity, it is obvious that it should have a significant impact on the minds/operations of its regional (and international) graduates.”
Take all that both of you have said as absolutely accurate as it is fair to say that the UWI must change and adapt as you both and others have intelligently suggested.
However, they have also produced excellent graduates over the years who have gone forth and ‘conquered’ in their own way on the world stages and indeed locally/regionally!
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@Dee Word
You do appreciate that the success of how we deliver education must be measured in the context of an always changing landscape in which the educated has to function? Can we claim success when our society in deteriorating economically and socially at such a rapid rate? Shouldn’t we hold the educated class more liable than others?
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@Mr Blogmaster, re “You do appreciate that the success of how we deliver education must be measured in the context of an always changing landscape in which the educated has to function?”…that is correct of course.
It speaks to the basic element of life…adapt and change or die! Education is at the core of that drive to live.
It was said by some pundit a few days ago that the efforts by people like Elon Musk (long life batteries) will change the entire dynamic of energy – and thus the fossil fuel industry – in the next 10 years.
It reminded me of chat here with you and then a brief one with Pacha re energy needs and Saudia Arabia’s oil strategies. He opined that oil prices would return to their previous high water marks (all like now). That seemed odd to me based on all the other punditry saying otherwise.
All that to say, that this period with this alternative energy sources and fossil fuels is a very crucial one for our (world) future. So is our regional UWI adapting to recognize that and the various other shifts in world affairs? Is our Min of Ed adapting our local pedagogy accordingly?
Are they for example all adapting to this ‘new’ political reality of a new Czar in Russia, the unquestionable world’s strong man, and the new ‘heating war’ that he can literally make into his own forceful ‘cold war’. What does a preeminent Russia presage for regional and world affairs!
Sir Hillary is absolutely much more intelligent and well-read than I will ever be so if I can appreciate these very simple yet profound dynamics of the ‘changing landscape’ I will have to presume that he does too…in fact he would have done so a long time ago (I further presume) and would be orienting his institution to meet future needs.
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The Video.
Pros.
While unsure of the age of the subject this can be said of/for him.
In the face of the obvious subject verb illiteracy of the male effecting the instruction he has recalled the material
his cognitive skills regarding letters and their respective sounds (a few of which his instructor(s) either do not know or based on his age dependent acuity, he has not acquired,)
He knows his alphabet AND WAS ABLE TO SHOW UP HIS INGRUNT INSTRUCTOR WHO CANNOT WRITE.
He “learnt” cat and consequently was able to recognize that the writer, while effing up the last character must have been writing a “t”
In the proper circumstances that young man would be very bright insofar as his regurgitate skills are concerned, one cannot however project whether his ability to extrapolate his education would be similarly impactful
Cons
There are at least 5 that this exercise shows beginning with the inability of the instructor to write properly (his characters are almost baby like themselves) and the impact that such potentially has on the learning/teaching cycle
The session was ergonomically incorrect insofar as where the “teacher” positioned the written paper for the boy’s review ergo him having to twist his head. (Understandably this is for Internet viewership)
I will not list the rest because I comprehend the thrust behind this video here vis a vis budding black brilliance and how it could and should be nourished particularly if, and my assumption is that, this is the boy’s father.
A black Afro American child in the presence of a black Afro American man, positive vibrations
What is important in all cycles is teaching what we know, with a caveat that, what we know as baseline data, is both valid and forms a firm foundation for our children to continue on, when exposed to formal and more structured educational institutions
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By the time the backward officials start to pretending they are doing something to upgrade the education system and provide more techical training…quantum computers will no longer be just theory…once again Barbados will be 20 years behind and cannot keep up…the leaders are the problem…saw Byer claiming the young males dont want to be trained….so instead of looking for excuses…train the males who are interested, eventually others will follow….I think it is more likely that young males do not want their lives tormented by people who are not trained to train anyone.
I will bet if I ask all the ministers of government and the members of the oppostion what are quantum computers….not one of them would know….the leaders lack knowledge, they cannot help the population, they are attracted to parliament for the perks, the high salaries, the pensions….the opportinities for kick backs and bribes…they are useless to the people with their present mentalities and…in their present forms.
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God equipped every person at birth with the capacity to think. Education, in the form of schooling, has always (and will always) be about what to think. Quality schooling is thus a function of curriculum content and valid and reliable assessment.
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@ Ping Pong
God equipped every person at birth with the capacity to think.
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Ok then….!
Explain AC…. 🙂
“Schooling” is a good term for what we are really talking about.
In Bushie’s opinion, schooling is a CRITICAL aspect of national development, …where older generations pass on traditions, beliefs, values and knowledge to future generations – who are meant to build on this foundation as they seek to pass on an IMPROVED structure to THEIR children.
The problem comes when part of the foundation being passed on, is compromised by mental slavery ….such that the traditions, values and knowledge being transmitted are tainted…. with brass…
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@ David
What does one need to do to get George to defend one of his papers?
Shiite man!
We tried being nice (well some people did …not stinking Bushie… 🙂 )
We tried being critical…
We tried being dismissive…
..and now being clearly insulting…
Bushie really thought that a robust debate could have been had …assuming that George had actually given some thought to the piece ..and thus feel able to defend his arguments…
Guess not….
REALLY bright people look forward to being challenged – it brings out the real genius in them.
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Bush Tea
Good schooling will result in the transmission of the useful traditions, validated beliefs, ethical values and contemporary knowledge. However it also anticipates the future and hopefully leaves the former students with the tools to negotiate the future if not to shape it. Nearly everything about our school (and university) experience is about “knowledge” that is dated and on the way to obsolescence. Barbados is preparing its young people for the world of 1916 and not 2016.
I agree with your comment that if the university degree was good value for money then more students would find the means to pay for it.
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@ Bushie
George reads the comments and is free to jump in if you agree to shed the stinking 🙂
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In 2008 when the DLP took office, I was hopeful when the Ministry of Education was renamed the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development. I said to myself:
“Hmm interesting. Maybe these guys are going to really move the country forward in terms of the human capacity building and embark on integrated planning and implementation vis a vis dovetailing economic planning, physical development and human resource planning”.
Then came the six hour fiasco in terms of the parliamentary speech by Mr Ronald Jones in presenting the Human Resource Development Strategy and the subsequent inaction. In its second term the Human Resource component was dropped from the name of the ministry.
I should have known better.
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http://ow.ly/tZ8l303ZLLW
Some degrees that is being said will no longer exist in 20 years…easily replaced by technology.
Whst will unprepared islands do.
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“Law itself can be replaced by technology”
I am sure many people will be happy to see law replaced with technology, there will be very little use for lawyers then…been hearing about this for quite some time.
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@ Brother Bush Tea
You play you ent know how wunna BU peeple does wait fuh a feller heah and leh he write INGRUNCE and when de feller return to he pup, den wash he way in Chatterati blows???
Whu Looka Whu wunna do wid dat feller from de Drug Place Danny Gill.
And Looka Whu wunna do wid dat feller Walther PPK and he trembling tenderonis?
Wunna tink dat man want he credentials as a researcher and political strategist to be ripped apart here pun BU?
He article may show he to be a real fool one way but he ent so foolish to rush and defend de pup and conclusively be proven to be Ingrunt
“He who pups (fights) and runs away lives to pup (fight) another day” á la George C Brathwaite He may got Adriel last name but he ent no Dimwit like we Attorney General
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While I do not wish to focus solely on the tertiary level aspects of out education system there are some issues that are worth additional mention.
I claim no Genesis for this particular observation insofar as pertinent “training for purpose” is definitively linked to the economic value chain.
For any university read education system to contribute to economic development in any meaningful way it perforce must have close adaptable links to current initiatives, service industries, manufacturers and employers”
Any other strategy translates into educational flagellation in a public place because such means that the University would only be investing in and graduating students for whom there is little or no purpose” other that that of carnival bands for the Minister lil Caesar Lashley to wuk up on during his national, and only, pass time 😜
Cum leh we wuk up and have a good time
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We need to understand that education is not what it used to be. This is firstly because any procedure which can be reduced to a sequence of instructions will be done by software more reliably, quickly and cheaply than any human can accomplish. There is simply no longer any point to educating people to follow instructions.
Secondly, it is now quite ridiculous to educate people in order to stuff their memory with information. They have a WiFi connection which gives them immediate access to more information than any human can fit in their cranium.
What then, should education do in our contemporary society? It should help people to do what computers and the internet cannot. It should enhance creativity: the process of generating new ideas which other people agree have value. It should develop judgement: the skill of sorting through oceans of information to decide which is true and which is important (these are not the same).
Notice that any educational model which relies on authority cannot possibly accomplish any of these necessary tasks. Fearless imagination, deep skepticism, and critical thinking are the skills that we need to carefully develop in our young people, starting in kindergarten. This means that the days of students being compliant little receptacles of knowledge sitting in neat well behaved rows is a dream that needs to die. We need them to talk back… we need them to break the rules… we need them to challenge us… if they do not, they are doomed.
Think about it… the children who started kindergarten a couple of days ago will not be retiring until 2086, if then. Anyone who thinks that they know what challenges these children will face over their working lifetimes is fooling themselves. You haven’t a clue anymore than your granny could have predicted Ebola or the internet. What we need to do is help our young people to be adaptable, because they will have to adapt or die, and I prefer that they have the capacity to adapt.
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@ David
George reads the comments and is free to jump in if you agree to shed the stinking
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Ok Boss…consider it dropped.
Georgie can handle the ragging…Bushie is frankly surprised that he has not come out swinging… There MUST be some way that we can get some returns from that PhD of his…
@ Ping Pong
Bushie does REALLY feel sorry for people like you and Jeff yuh know!!! It must be so frustrating to be seeing such OBVIOUS paths to progress being so consistently evaded – often at great costs – by our leaders…..even where they appear to have the tools needed for success.
When the DLP took office in 2008, it was really a mafia run by Thompson. Unlike all the others who have not yet answered Ms. Karma, he was actually quite intelligent….and would have understood your excitement about adding Human Resource Development to education…. Had he lived, he may even have actualised it… The others left are all clueless idiots who would have challenges in working out any correlation between the two….
Unfortunately DT was too indebted to the devil for Karma to be delayed….and unfortunately, unless you understand the SPIRITUAL component, it will be impossible to follow such illogical brass bowlery
@ Piece
George just needs to be ‘blooded’. He is still consumed with self-doubts and insecurities and is overly concerned about being ‘accepted’.
This lack of confidence comes from the process of getting a PhD on the Hill…. It all boils down to being ‘accepted’ by the boys…. rather than from any innate talent or ingenuity.
So when people SHOUT at such graduates, they have been trained to retreat from their position.. and to toe the line….
LOL… unlike stin….. (oops Uh mean) unlike ‘yours truly’ Bushie – whose juices begin to flow when shouted at, challenged, or (worse yet) abused…. and the trouble starts….
SHUGGAH!!!
LOL
ha ha ha ha
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@ Bush Tea said “… schooling is a CRITICAL aspect of national development, …where older generations pass on traditions, beliefs, values and knowledge to future generations…”
The problems are these: most of the older generation’s beliefs are irrational prejudices inherited from the racist colonial regime of our fathers’ time; the traditions are bankrupt as proved by where they have brought us after 50 years of independence; the values are corrupt as evidenced by the function of our churches, political parties, and private sector; and the knowledge is paltry in comparison to what is available to anyone with a WiFi connection.
We need to abandon the outdated fantasy of traditional schooling… our young people need and deserve much more.
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@ peterlawrencethompson September 7, 2016 at 8:47 PM
What then, should education do in our contemporary society? It should help people to do what computers and the internet cannot. It should enhance creativity: the process of generating new ideas which other people agree have value. It should develop judgement: the skill of sorting through oceans of information to decide which is true and which is important (these are not the same).
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Interesting position! This is the kind of follow-up line that Bushie expected from George…
However you err in a number of critical areas.
The items which you specify above are just one level up from the memory stuffing that you rightly criticised as wasteful…. and you have excluded the single most important role that education should play ..if it is to take a meaningful role in national development.
It must FIRST teach people who they are; where they fit in the grand scheme of things; what is expected of them; and what represents ‘success’ at the end of their stint.
Everything else is context driven…..depending on the reality of the times…which have been changing at such an exponential rate that NO ONE knows what next year will bring…far less 2088…and…
Talents and special skills are GIFTS of nature….and cannot be ‘taught’. (but can be refined)
The ONLY consistent subjects then for true ‘education’ are related to VALUES and PURPOSE.
Of course, we have had no time to keep such subjects on our curricula – we have been too busy with the ‘critical’ edykashun topics like Arithmetic, English, Science and French.
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The problems are these: most of the older generation’s beliefs are irrational prejudices inherited from the racist colonial regime of our fathers’ time
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LOL
Boss, if you think that the ‘traditions and beliefs of Black Bajans’ are those inherited from the racist colonial then you fit exactly with what is wrong with us here….
Bushie is talking about the kind of heritage that goes way back…and which was broken by centuries of slavery…
Have you ANY idea of the TRUE legacy of Blacks…? and hence of the mirror image we OUGHT to have….?
Ask Sir Cave…..
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@ Bush Tea
In order for education to play a productive role in national development it needs to develop at least the two factors that I’ve enumerated: fertile creativity and good judgement. I am sure that there are other things necessary as well; what are your suggestions.
The problem with trying to tell them “who they are; where they fit in the grand scheme of things; what is expected of them” is that you don’t know these things— they are dependent on a future environment that you cannot predict, even if you think you can. These things are important, I agree with you up to that point, but they are things that our young people will have to work out for themselves using fertile creativity, good judgement and…
I have a profound distrust of those who try to tell me what my values and purpose should be, because my great great grandparents were taught by people quoting Ephesians 6:5 that it was the word of God that, “… slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling…” If people do not work out their values and purpose for themselves, then they remain slaves.
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@ Bush Tea
I’m delighted that you are referring to “the kind of heritage that goes way back…and which was broken by centuries of slavery…” Sadly, most Bajans are still in the thrall of Bible thumping charlatans who only serve to perpetuate the colonialism which imposed the centuries of slavery and broke the heritage which goes way back.
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If people do not work out their values and purpose for themselves, then they remain slaves.
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Boss, if Dr. George had said such a thing…. you done know that Bushie would have called him all sorta names… (to put it nicely…)
What outcome would you expect if parent allowed children to ‘work out their values for themselves…’ Do you even GRASP the concept of “family, legacy and heritage”?
Even some wild animals take the time for parents to pass on values to their young….
You also said…
The problem with trying to tell them “who they are; where they fit in the grand scheme of things; what is expected of them” is that you don’t know these things…— they are dependent on a future environment that you cannot predict,
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Speak for yourself Boss…
…and no! …they are not dependent on future environment…. Quite the opposite…
Bushie is a product of great kings of Africa – who were the original models of mankind…
After centuries of attempted genocide of our peoples, we are duty bound to break out the bonds of slavery and brass-bowlery ….and to re-establish the great legacy of our ancestors….
…and what is expected of us – is that we reflect the great and unmatchable spirit of strength and humanity of our race.
If you think that our children, growing up in a world overwhelmed with albino-centricity, will be able to ‘work out such values’ for themselves – without LEARNED and WISE guidance, (TRUE EDUCATION) then you probably are drinking water in Toronto …like Bushie’s pals Sarge and Dribbles….
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…and why pick on the ‘Bible thumping charlatans’?
How about the academic idiots? …the political pimps? ….the visionless leaders …and the clueless sheeple?
ALL are brass bowls who are marching to self-destruction, following a path of ignorance.
The religious brass bowls who advised quoting Ephesians 6:5 that it was the word of God that, “… slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling…” may have been using a principle that is clearly beyond your (and their) field of view…. but people MISUSE excellent tools every day, however that does not invalidate that tool for its correct use.
That line of argument is thus invalid and lame.
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@ Bush Tea
You got me… of course they need ” LEARNED and WISE guidance.” I’m very aware that the world is fundamentally racist and don’t advocate abandoning the next generations to chance and fate. I think that education should be all about guidance as a methodology. The etymology is from Latin, educare: to bring out, to lead forth. It’s about bringing out the student’s potential, not shoving ourselves in to their minds.
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@ peter
The etymology is from Latin, educare: to bring out, to lead forth. It’s about bringing out the student’s potential, not shoving ourselves in to their minds.
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We are at one…
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“Everything else is context driven…..depending on the reality of the times…which have been changing at such an exponential rate that NO ONE knows what next year will bring…far less 2088…and…
Talents and special skills are GIFTS of nature….and cannot be ‘taught’. (but can be refined)”
The Establishment is not interested in all the philosophy. ..bottomline. ..they are only interested in what can earn them billions of dollars from century to century….that is what they will run with, using the greatest, most gifted minds.
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As long as you see the Federal Government shutting down those 50 year old scam universties…read ITT TECH, Trump university, a recent addition that did not last 5 years….you would know, in 30 years, most universities will be a thing of the past…scam or not.
There is a new game in town, with only a few knowing the rules…until they are ready to tell you.
The leaders in Barbados may catch up 50 years later, when the Establishment has already upgraded to something newer and more profitable.
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Reading the posts of PLT I am reminded of two things. One is the old saying that a little education is a dangerous thing. The other is that, in my first week as a university freshman many years ago, one of my instructors knocked me for six when he announced with great authority in class that one of his research projects was an investigation of why people “wasted so much of their lives sleeping”.
Apparently, this guy was convinced that sleep was totally unnecessary and he had secured hundreds of thousands of dollars in research grants to demonstrate how and why we could do without sleep.
I have no idea what happened to that crackpot, but we should all take PLT with a generous heaping of salt, especially when he starts explaining the purposes of education, and tells us that it’s useless to teach people to memorize. Really? Does PLT not understand that the habit of memorization develops the brain and helps to maintain its functions?
And then there is all this puffery about computers taking over, which we have heard forever, even though we still don’t even have a driverless car we can rely on.
Put a sock in it, Peter.
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Lol…and when Galileo told them the earth was round they swore it was flat and locked up the poor dude.
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Ready done,
…..all we have to do is change secondary schools to colleges.
Done already, we have Harrison College, and Queens College…. And then the Community College which was intended to replace the absent sixth forms at those schools which were not”colleges”. at the time.
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@ Chad99999
The habit of memorization develops the memory, but it is a mistake to conflate memory with brain power. Human memory used to be much better before we invented the technology of writing things down (i.e. paper & ink memory); educated people in those days committed what would amount to entire novels to memory. Few of us do that anymore because it isn’t the most productive use of our brain power. Now that we have invented digital memory the function of memory in human culture changes again, and effective education needs to keep up with these changes.
Driverless cars, even in their embryonic state of development, already are far superior (i.e. safer) than the average human driven car. As of June 2015 the Google driverless cars had logged 1.8 million miles and been involved in 14 accidents, all minor, and all the fault of other human driven cars on the road.
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And they are still not colleges Alvin……..Even if you change the Harrison College High Schools and Combermere and Queens Collge High Schools into Colleges….they are high schools, not colleges….stop trying to mislead people you liar Alvin…..
……ya still have to introduce the majority subjects as techinical studies to get any success…the present tired old curriculum is not getting students anywhere…..at this present time where the world is moving forward to more progressive careers.
Dont tell me I dont know what I am talking about because I am well familiar with those schools and the courses offered….they are high schools….because they carry the name college dies not make them a college until the curriculum is changed…check out Hunter High School in Manhattan….then check out Hunter College.
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Some people live in the US…but are clueless to the advances right in their face.
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Computer technology is like women — a hugely expensive nuisance you wish you didn’t have to put up with.
Let’s remind ourselves that most IT projects FAIL, but only after costing their sponsors nearly every penny in their pockets.
Most of the projects that succeed, fail to deliver even a fraction of the benefits promised, but the IT industry is very good at “managing expectations” and can convince you that all of the workarounds you end up having to do are somehow worth it because “progress is hard” and “nobody has done this stuff before”.
Don’t ask any IT vendor about benefits realization? There are usually no benefits you haven’t paid through the nose for.
My point is that computers only incrementally improve the way we do things, including education. PLT is a snake oil visionary, selling a future none of us will ever live to see.
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Bushie you heard the teacher who laid bare the challenges being experienced in education today? We always forget the primary level where the systemic issue is grounded.
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@Chad99999 said “Computer technology is like women — a hugely expensive nuisance you wish you didn’t have to put up with.”
Let’s just say that my experience with women and with computer technology seems profoundly different than yours. I love them, never found them to be expensive, and they’ve been very good to me. 😉
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Sorry David …missed it…
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Makes me wonder what Chadx9 has been doing to and with his computers…if he is using it for all the wrong reasons and is still not satisfied…dont blame the computer. A computer only gives what you the user put in.
You should not drop your computer, if ya can help it, or it will break, they are designed to break, so you will have to buy another one. If you are not tech savvy, buy a book and read all about the things you need to know…or google it.
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A sound education is not about the computer.It’s about memorization. It’s about solving problems over and over again until they become easy.
(1) For many people, memorizing passages of great literature (e.g. Shakespeare) improves their own ability to write poetry and prose.
(2) The first time you tackle a complex task is harder than the second time. By the tenth time, it may be a piece of cake– in part because the brain has literally built new internal nerve connections.
(3) Orderly sequencing of individual steps in a difficult task reduces its complexity, etc.
The invention and the use of computers doesn’t change any of this. Most people cannot learn calculus by visiting websites. They cannot teach themselves any complicated task.They need an expert guide to answer questions and there are too many possible questions for a computer program to code into self-paced courses.
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Computers cannot code themselves and deliver finished products or end results, the human brain is needed to create those functions….using the computer…besides, you should not live on a computer, even if you code.
I recently saw someone spend 17 straight hours just coding…but that’s their job.
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http://www.barbadostoday.bb/2016/09/09/health-agreement-between-barbados-and-uk-ends/
Were bajans even aware that they were allowed free healthcare when visiting the UK, I know the government ministers, friends and family were well aware though, did they bother to tell the population. ..or was it a big state secret told only to a few….well the party yall had is over.
So much for Sealy and his idiocy, this is one of the fall outs from Brexit, another message is being sent to the Barbados government ministers….if only their heads were not so hard in thinking they special.
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Sometimes the best education does not help, just look at the idiots wanting to rule the US…this is not a joke, dumb politicians at large.
http://ow.ly/NqSx3043yk9
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@ Chad99999
Some days you really don’t double check what you write do you?
“A sound education is not about the computer.It’s about memorization. It’s about solving problems over and over again until they become easy…”
That statement and much of its syllogistic derived aftermath is absolutely incorrect.
A sound education is not about memorization it is about understanding the principle of a subject, irrespective of its permutations and being able to apply the principle accordingly
I am on an iPad ticking with one finger so I won’t be to lengthy here but memorization of Shakespeare DOES NOT INHERENTLY MAKE ONE A MILTON, it does not word so.
That is like saying that, because I memorized all of Lionel Richie’s songs I will be the next earth wind and fire.
You and Amused like wunna hooked up a smoked some Marijuana recently though cause you writing like a man under the influence heheheheh
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I make this pronouncement that if Mia Mottley does not do a serious revamp of the Education system when she becomes Prime Minister next election that our entire country will become a sex destination
Take a look at this
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-37246995
“Surgeons have used a robot to operate inside the eye and restore sight – in a world first.
A team at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital used the device, controlled via a joystick, to remove a membrane one hundredth of a millimetre thick.”
Artificial Intelligence and Robotics are going to make our nation of highly literate citizens a thing of the past or decided good on our back or our stomachs like AC already is.
De ole man does jes pull all she buttons at will doah!!!
Again this is the Practical Application of Pharaoh’s dream where in the time of plenty, read US$236 million and Edutech we sought to make dem Illuminated peeple Arm Strong and inevitably over 10 years later are now seeing the world changing around us while we stand, with flaccid doggies, impotent to the occasion
Where there is no vision our people will perish
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LOL @ Piece
You got two years put down somewhere while we wait for action from the BLP???
…assuming that they manage to get their act together…
Boss, EVERY SINGLE DAY ..Bushie awakes with the nagging fear that it could be the watershed point where the bottom drops out… It won’t take much after the demolition job done by our political leaders since 2000.
Wish Bushie could be as optimistic as you seem to be…. little though that is…
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@PUDRYR
I make this pronouncement that if Mia Mottley does not do a serious revamp of the Education system when she becomes Prime Minister next election that our entire country will become a sex destination
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I’m all for second chances so hopefully a second kick at the can could be beneficial, how come yuh left out Atty Gen (chief lawmaker in the Gov’t) in charge of Police etc. but since she has held almost every portfolio in the previous Gov’t, the only job (apart from PM of course) that will warm the cockles of her heart is Min. Of Finance (a Bajan Chancellor of the Exchequer)
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