Grenville Phillips II, Leader of Solutions Barbados
Our children are currently preparing for the Common Entrance Examination, so we can expect the same debates about the exam that we have been having for the past 40 years. Imagine that. We essentially waste our time on this issue every year while our politicians make no meaningful improvements. Well, not under a Solutions Barbados administration.
The two sides of this debate are that some want to abolish the exam while some want to keep it. The reasons for each side are many and diverse, and all of them have merit.
The main reasons advanced for abolishing the exam are the belief that it perpetuates an elitist society, and that one examination should not have such serious consequences on a child’s future. On the other side, persons believe that it is the fairest method available for allocating students to schools that have a history of higher academic performance and discipline.
Barring any permanent mental challenges, with time, all of our students can master all of the information that they are taught. However, some of them, whom we call early learners, will learn it before their peers.
For example, some of our children may be able to write the alphabet earlier, when they are 4 years old, while others may learn it later when they are 6. If our children are examined on their knowledge of the alphabet when they are 5 years old, then those who learnt the information earlier will do better. However, if all students are examined when they are 6 years old, when all students understand the material, then the test will be fair to all.
We currently teach and examine all students on the information that only the early learners have the capacity to fully understand. Therefore, the early learners tend to do well and are assigned to secondary schools with other early learners. The late learners tend to do poorly in this exam that is designed for early learners, and are assigned to secondary schools with other late learners.
Some late learners will develop into early learners after they have been assigned and will outperform their peers. The remaining late learners will then become: frustrated at not being able to understand the material, discouraged at the consistent low scores they receive, and disinterested in the subject. They finally stop trying to learn when they believe the lie that the information can only be understood by a person who is intellectually superior.
Our school system reinforces the idea in our children and parents that the early learners are intellectually superior high-achievers, and should be directed to more academic study. The late learners are deemed intellectually inferior low-achievers, and are encouraged to work with their hands. When parents and teachers have given-up on our late learners, we perpetuate a slavery mentality that some of us must advance so far and no further. This is the root cause of many of our social problems.
There appears to be a failure to appreciate that when a late learner is allowed to understand what the early learner learnt previously, then both the early and late learners can perform at an equal level of competence. They are all high achievers then, with the same level of aptitude. In a Solutions Barbados administration, the Common Entrance Examination will be fair, and the school curriculum will be rearranged so that it benefits all of our students, instead of only our early learners.
The Government mandates that all parents must send their children to school. After daily rewarding our early learners and frustrating our late learners, the school system sends them back to their parents with false notions of intellectual superiority and inferiority.
Our school system has done all of our students and parents, employees and employers a grave disservice. It has perpetuated the slavery idea that some are entitled to privilege, while others are to go so far and no further. For overseeing this most diabolical system for the past 40 years, and refusing to listen to any voice of justice, the BLP and DLP do not deserve a single seat in our Parliament.
Just wasted 2 minutes reading this twaddle!
@Pingpong
I disagree it was not two minutes wasted, did not detect ISO9001 mentioned once.
If this is what passes as Solutions Barbados’ education policy then we are in serious trouble. The problem is that Grenville must allow the other 29 of his candidates to express themselves.
Wily Coyote
Hahahaha….. you should have listened to the “People’s Parliament.” Paul Gibson mentioned ISO9001 on several occasions.
Grenville Phillips II mean well, but, as “de ole peeple” used to say…….. “he too strong headed.”
Who are we to dismiss Grenville and SB if the current state we find ourselves can be mapped to successive BLP and DLP governments?
Time waits for no one.
If you can move on at 4, go for it.
David BU
Are you serious? So far, Grenville Phillips II and Solutions Barbados’ policies are simplistic….or perhaps it is the method Phillips II is using to articulate these policies that makes them appear to be simplistic.
Additionally, I (and Hal Austin) have often mentioned that Phillips II needs to allow other members of his team to fully explain his party’s policies and how these policies will address the issues confronting this island.
He had adequate time to select candidates as “shadow ministers” who would have been able address pertinent issues and further articulate SB’s policies. Instead, he wasted time attacking the Opposition.
In my opinion, so far, the UPP has out performed Solutions Barbados in VOB’s “The People Parliament.”
Then again…there are those individuals who are quick to dismiss Phillips II offering he and his candidates as “successful businessmen”……….
………..but are quick to endorse a “successful businesswoman” such as Natlee.
I agree with the issues identified but I do not agree with your analysis.
The Law of Natural Selection cannot be defeated.
Hundreds of years of various good-intentioned people’s and institutions’ efforts to do that have failed; Communism being the most glaring example of all.
Life is competitive from the time we are pushed out to the time we are laid in a king’s or pauper’s grave.
If you had suggested that secondary school attendance should be re-shuffled after 3rd form exams, I would agree with you whole-heartedly.
I know of several Harrison and Queens students who could not keep up after 3rd form and I know of several Garrison and Lester Vaughn students who were kept back by curriculum’s that catered for slower students there.
What we cannot do is pretend that life in the real world is anything other than competitive, that would be doing our children the greatest disservice of all.
In the real world, everyone in the running race doesn’t get a trophy like they do in primary school.
The last thing this country needs is more educated and qualified slackers.
Talking Loud Saying Nothing March 28, 2018 at 7:39 AM #
A couple former colleagues of mine recently returned from watching the England cricket tour and all they could talk about was the quality of the driving.
I had to remind them that Barbadians believe they are the bet drivers in the world. There is nothing worse than driving a car with an H registration on it.
In reality, they ignore signals, they drive in any lane and cut across other vehicles and they speed needlessly. Just look at the road traffic accident statistics. That is all the evidence you need.
I used to think it funny having a public education advertisement on television with a sergeant advising people how to drive at round-abouts. Is there a highway code in Barbados, and if so is it used by motorists?
Can we expect a SB government to implement ISO9001 to make all secondary schools equal ?
@ Hants at 8 :53 AM
What do you mean by equal? What are the social benefits of an equal school? Can this noble objective be achieved? Or rather has it been achieved anywhere in this world?
@ Bernard Codrington,
I asked a question. I don’t have the answer.
You are perfectly correct and if The Lord’s Return/Armageddon tarries most people of our age are going to face a rebellious crowd of anarchists.
@David
You’re serious? Because we are where we are we are to accept nonsense?
@ David at 7 : 54 AM
Even if your assertion is true, and many of us do not subscribe to your observation, the past is the past. We collectively, willingly or unwillingly , contributed to those outcomes.
The important issue is what do we do going forward. Our mistake was not to examine what the parties promised and their feasibility. We also lacked in our judgement as to what constitute good leadership. We must eliminate emotionalism and despair and select a group of persons that will deliver most of what the country seeks.
@Bernard
To throwaway learnings from the past is not constructive. How do we facilitate ideas required to disrupt?
@ Enuff
Good point…
What would you call the last 30 years of B/DLP …if not nonsense?
What David is saying is that perhaps you have become so ‘conditioned’ that you have NO IDEA what ‘nonsense’ is…
Here is a definition that you may wish to play with….
Anything that defies the VERY PURPOSE of life constitutes ‘nonsense’.
@ Frustrated B
Well said.
Bushie has long called for ANNUAL ’11+ type’ exams – in multiple areas – ranging from academics, to sport, craft, music etc- which would determine the placement of students for the next year – based on performance.
The NATURAL law is one of survival of the fittest.
Brass bowls attempt to create systems that guarantee success for idiots.
”Brass bowls attempt to create systems that guarantee success for idiots.”
How true! But don’t mek meh laugh so much
At university I discovered that many a student from the top schools were what I call great test takers. They had test preparation down to a science, whether it was cramming, memorising or using some form of mind mapping, they got it done and it worked. They were said to be naturally bright. They spoke with the highest confidence and could rattle off quotes and equations with ease but ask what they love or like about the subject, nothing.
Students from the newer secondary schools on the other hand relied more on understanding and applying the knowledge they gained. The more they could relate to the subject and connect with the material the better they performed and the more confident they were when the spoke.
Both types of students are needed but our education system is prejudiced towards the first type. A country cannot advance when we only recognise one type.
Our government is being led by too many crammers and memorisers. They can write beautiful papers, give great speeches but present them with a situation not in their books or never encountered before at university and they are lost. Case in point, the current situation we are in.
What makes Philips think that the CE is not currently already set for late learners. The accepted exam passing grade at UWI undergradauate level is 40%!! The conundrum is similar to the dilemma faced by economists promoting the eradication of poverty . . . there will always be relative poverty and so too “later learners”. His proposal will eventually lead to a dumbing down of the analytical stamina in the country and consequently also to the overvaluation of self-serving politicians that are quick to try currying favour with the public that slavery is obviously at the root of our country’s mismanagement. It’s the Educators that are not rigourous enough !!
@Hants March 28, 2018 at 8:53 AM “Can we expect a SB government to implement ISO9001 to make all secondary schools equal ?”
Children do not have equal gifts.
Look at Hants and Bernard, and Grenville and look at me.
So schools can never be equal. Children, their parents and their teachers have differing and unequal abilities.
But the state must ensure that schools are equitably funded, that is schools which serve large numbers of special needs children should receive more funding per child. All teacher’s should be exposed to the same basic education/training, and be expected to engage in continuing education, all libraries, labs, workshops, music rooms etc. should meet a specified standard. After all we all pay the same 17.5% VAT on mostly everthing, even those of us who are simpletons.
The state’s duty is to smooth out familial and societal inequalities.
@ Simple Simon at 1 :14 PM
You are so right and so bright.
The state’s duty is to smooth out “familial and societal inequalities”. That is what successive Barbados administrations have been doing even before the advent of the labour parties.
As you admitted we do have a diverse of preferences and abilities bestowed on us by nature and nurture . It is our belief systems that attribute to these varying abilities and preferences superiority and inferiority.
We should respect each other as fellow humans. Neither jobs,colour of skin or quantities of material wealth should define us. It is the latter deficiency that we should do some work on.
@ David at 12: 20 PM
New does not imply better. Fit for purpose and in accordance with the social objectives of the citizens is better. It is not change for change sake that we need but progress and development. The electorate will indicate its preferences in the voting booth.
@Bernard
Nothing wrong with your theoretical statement. The bottomline is that a democratic system is not perfect as far as delivering the ideal to the citizenry, unfortunately it is the best that we have. Do you know how many âignorantâ people vote?
Simple Simon March 28, 2018 at 1:14 PM #
What we are talking about is equality of opportunity, no equality of outcome. In terms of Barbados, we can start by making public the CXC results for each school every year.
I have been told by a former senior education official that this information is provided by the Caribbean Examination Council to the ministry every year. Why is it not published?
Second, once we can have empirical evidence of any disparity, we can then redress that imbalance through policy.
As long as we pretend that some schools are better than others, then we are simply perpetuating a myth.
Grenville needs to get over it that in spite of the fact that he came from a privileged household he struggled at some period during his schooling.
Even though the school system is not perfect his radical solutions, which is not based on any published pedagogy will not benefit the majority of our children.
When my children were young one of them asked me whether there is anything that God cannot do, because we are taught that God is omnipotent are we not? i told the child that not even God can change the past.
Way past time for Grenville to get over his past failures. Time to celebrate his subsequent and current successes.
Simple Simon March 28, 2018 at 2:58 PM #
What is his privileged background? I understand his father is an accountant. Is that privileged?
@Hal Austin March 28, 2018 at 2:47 PM “What we are talking about is equality of opportunity, no equality of outcome. In terms of Barbados, we can start by making public the CXC results for each school every year. I have been told by a former senior education official that this information is provided by the Caribbean Examination Council to the ministry every year. Why is it not published? Second, once we can have empirical evidence of any disparity, we can then redress that imbalance through policy.”
Nothing to disagree with here.
@Hal Austin March 28, 2018 at 2:59 PM “What is his privileged background? I understand his father is an accountant. Is that privileged?”
Compared to my father who was a tradesman who had to leave school at 11, yes an accountant is privileged.
Compared to families like mine which raised nearly a dozen children, yes a man from a family with fewer than 5 children is privileged.
Compared to children who faint on hot over crowded school buses those children who are driven to school by their parents are privileged.
Accountant’s children who have had optimum nutrition from conception to adulthood are privileged compared to the children of poorly paid labourers or the chronically under employed or under employed.
Compared to too many of our children who are/were raised in father absent families, a man who was raised in a family where both parents were present and deeply invested in his education and his success is highly privileged.
And remember no child asks to be born in a poor or dysfunctional family.
“But the state must ensure that schools are equitably funded, that is schools which serve large numbers of special needs children should receive more funding per child. All teacher’s should be exposed to the same basic education/training, and be expected to engage in continuing education, all libraries, labs, workshops, music rooms etc. should meet a specified standard. After all we all pay the same 17.5% VAT on mostly everthing, even those of us who are simpletons.”
I notice every year this same debate returns like a bad, incurable rash….and no matter how many years it returns, the solutions to the antiquated school system kept in place by backward governments will never change.
the better funded the schools, with the equipment, technology and skills training to match, the better the performances of the children…this is not about competition, take out the competing element and let children learn at their own pace.
forward thinking societies have already started leading the way in that regard, the information can be found online, it’s not rocket science and it is workable, especially on such a tiny island with a tiny population.
Simple Simon March 28, 2018 at 3:11 PM #
OK. Or is this an exaggerated notion of privilege? So the children of lawyers are also privileged? What about the children of plumbers? In the UK lawyers pack up their profession and re-train as plumbers and publicans.
The problem is not privilege, but families that are too big. I believe government should intervene after two children: making the parents pay the full cost of education, health, etc for a third child, and any further children should be taken in to care.
We have had this conversation before, but a married couple with two children and in work strand a better chance of providing for their children, than a father or mother with five and six children all with different fathers/mothers and only one parent working.
The respectable working class are the backbone of our society.
@ Simple Simon at 3:11 PM
Did you really feel underprivileged because your father was a tradesman and had 11 children?
Do you really want to convince the BU household that you were really unhappy?
I am asking you to do some personal retrospection and convince me that if you had the power to change your life experience that you would do so.
God/ nature in its wisdom put you in your circumstance because HE/SHE/ IT wanted to see how you would manage your situation. Did you think you failed? I do not think so. But do you?
@Hal Austin March 28, 2018 at 3:27 PM “OK. Or is this an exaggerated notion of privilege? So the children of lawyers are also privileged? What about the children of plumbers? In the UK lawyers pack up their profession and re-train as plumbers and publicans.”
i consider children raised in the homes of loving, sensible parents with adequate income and who are highly invested in their children to be privileged to be blessed. Policy makers need to do whatever is possible to remove inequities…but i’ve also said so this afternoon.
@ David at 2:40 PM
No. I do not know how many ignorant people vote. But whose fault is it that they do not know how they should vote? Ignorance is not a disease. It is an absence of knowledge and thinking skills. Even the educated suffer this deficiency.
If you were to take a sample of those who did not vote or spoiled votes , you would be surprised to learn that more than 50% of them are educated beyond primary. The other 50% believe that since they did not vote they are absolved from blame of electing a failed administration.
@ Bernard
SS….Do you really want to convince the BU household that you were really unhappy?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Do you also want Simple Simon to convince us that the bright light in the sky at noon is the sun…? Of course she is ‘unhappy’.
One minute she would never buy a car …and the next, she is calling those who were driven to school privileged… and those in ‘hot busses’ deprived.
Those busses were like old time BU back then…. the mixing of the sexes… whaloss!!!
…pity the poor nerds who were ‘driven’ to school….
Not only is SS unhappy, she likes it that way…
She is happy with being unhappy.
LOL
ha ha ha
The problem has NOTHING to do with equity.
Neither equality of opportunity or of ‘privilege’.
The education system should do three main things.
1 – teach the PURPOSE of being a part of the society.
2 – help students to IDENTIFY their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
3 – prepare students to MAXIMISE those strengths and to minimise the weaknesses.
The rest is left to individual free will, initiative, creativity, balls, imagination, hard work etc.
Simple Simon March 28, 2018 at 3:54 PM #
Are we talking about parenting or privilege, defined as material possessions and opportunities?
If we are talking about parenting, then I fully agree; parental love and affection is greater than all the money in the world, the same way that running around the Ivy as a kid were the happiest days of my life. I never saw it that we were poor.
But ‘privilege’ as you define parents irresponsibly driving their children to school, rather than allow them to mix with their peers on the school bus, could in fact be more damaging.
Hal Austin March 28, 2018 at 3:27 PM “families that are too big. I believe government should intervene after two children: making the parents pay the full cost of education, health, etc for a third child, and any further children should be taken in to care.”
The birth rate in Barbados is already too low at 1.8 per woman. How much lower can we go? How much lower should we go?
As for taking children into care? Whose care? And at what financial and social cost? If the parents are too poor to provide the basics how then will they “pay the full cost of education, health, etc.” If the money a’int there Hal it a’int there? And also do we have any evidence from the U.K or from Barbados that poor children taken into care do better than poor children raised by their natural parents? Are adoptive parents, foster parents or institutional care better for children?
And I am glad that you were not a policy maker in my time, because as a number child 7 of poor, minimally educated parents I would surely have been taken into care, probably by some family who were into “care giving” principally for the money.
I am no sure why people cannot see reproduction and child rearing as the “real-real work” that it is as when my Little Johnny grew up who do you think that it was it that took and continues to take the first cut of his wages? It is not me, as my requirements are zero. Is it the Barbados Revenue Authority and the National Insurance scheme.
Simple Simon March 28, 2018 at 4:48 PM #
I am sure you have greater expertise than me on demography, but a reproduction rate of 1.8 does not tell the full story. Is this the reproductive rate for all sectors of society? Some ethnic and religious minorities on average have six, nine, 12 children.
These kids do not remain little for ever. After a couple decades they too will start making demands on the society.
A little island of 166 sq miles and about 300000 people, over 1800 people per sq mile, is stretching it a bit.
Then we have to plan our land use, from roads (too many cars), to agriculture to housing. Already housing density is too much, we virtually live on top of each other.
There are 7.6bn people in the world, and this is predicted to grow to 11bn by 2100. The world is not getting any bigger.
In the late 1950s, with a much smaller population, the government of Barbados sent a mission to Dominica to discus re-locating some people. Already people are talking about moving Rohingas to Guyana. This will lead to conflict.
It is either we control ourselves now (there is no rule of law that every couple or individual woman and man should have children).
Already, we are getting a contradiction: the magic of medical science, in which men and women over the age of 50 can give birth, and the need to control environmental pressure, including over-population and food and water scarcity. Which is it going to be?
@Bernard Codrington March 28, 2018 at 3:38 PM “Simple Simon at 3:11 PM Did you really feel underprivileged because your father was a tradesman and had 11 children?”
Nah!!!
Because not only was he a tradesman, that man knew how to make the ground give up ofod, a gift he has left to his children. The old man has long been dead but he is still “feeding us” not with cash left in the bank, but with some land and the skills necessary to make it produce.
Thankfully at near three score and ten I have never ever gone to bed hungry.
But some children then and now do go to bed hungry…and hunger is not good for a child…and the state does have some duty in easing the hunger of poor children.
The littlest Johnnie just came home from school, Only 95% and second in class. Give me half an hour so that I can beat him for failing to get the extra 5 marks.
Back soon.
Simple Simon March 28, 2018 at 5:04 PM #
…………and the state does have some duty in easing the hunger of poor children.(Quote).
No. PARENTS have a duty not to allow their children to go to bed hungry if not DO NOT HAVE ANY MORE CHILDREN. Who had the fun? The state steps in as an act of charity, not an obligation.
This is the culture of entitlement in which some young men and women think it is a state responsibility to pay for their higher education.
Hal
Where is the proof that in Barbados or anywhere “ethnic and religious minorities on average have six, nine, 12 children” in 2018?
@Bush Tea March 28, 2018 at 4:03 PM “Those busses were like old time BU back then…. the mixing of the sexes… whaloss!!!”
Naughty boy.
ugly kids come from ugly parents,if you dont believe it follow an ugly kid home. So imagine if you have 9 or 12 of these hideous creatures roaming around like the offspring of sawney bean blighting up the place. Hal is right two kids and if one of the parents or grand parents are a mutt a sperm bank has to be included in family planning complete with pictures before a govt license to breed will be alloted.
Enuff March 28, 2018 at 5:36 PM #
Look at UK statistics.
Table 2: Births by term and ethnicity, England and Wales, 2013
Bangladeshi
Indian
Pakistani
Black African
Black Caribbean
White British
White Other
All Other
Not Stated
Births
1
3
4
3
1
64
9
10
3
“In 2016, the greatest percentage of all live births (60.6%) occurred in the White British group. The lowest percentages for all live births were for babies from the Bangladeshi and Black Caribbean groups with 1.5% and 0.9% of all live births respectively.” https://www.ons.gov.uk/
We have virtually heard nothing from Solutions Barbados, except for Grenville Phillips. So has he invoked a hush order, or is the rest of his party short on ideas! So, if this continues, and you vote your support to SB then you don’t really know what your getting. Likewise a vote for them maybe a vote taken away for real change.
Grenville is devolving, voters are not looking for secretive dictatorships…they already went thriugh the destructiveness of this secretive government.
It seems more and more as though Grenville is the front for others to take over once he is installed, whether he knows it or not is open to debate, that is what he is projecting, the electorate don’t seem overly impressed by SB and we cant blame them..
I dislike secretive politicians, they are well known for being up to no damn good.
A very interesting news story from today’s Al Jazeera.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/03/building-wakanda-africas-search-einstein-180329065957530.html
(These figures for 2007/8 and the percentage rates has been increasing or steady since then).
A baby boom among immigrant families is driving the population to a record high, government figures will show this week.
The figures, from the Office for National Statistics, will reveal that Britain’s highest birth rates are in the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities, both predominantly Muslim.
The birth rate among women born in Pakistan but living in the UK is three times higher than that among British-born women, the figures will show.
Separate figures due this month will reveal whether Mohammed has overtaken Jack as Britain’s most popular name for baby boys.
Last year’s ratings showed that Jack remained in first place, chosen for 6,928 babies, but Mohammed – taking into account all of its variant spellings – had overtaken Thomas to lie in second place with 5,991.
The evidence of a rising birth rate underlines last month’s official projections, first revealed in The Sunday Telegraph, which showed the population on course to rise to 77 million by the middle of the century, or even 91 million at the highest forecast.
The figures were sharply higher than in previous projections, due to higher forecasts for all three of the factors that affect population: birth rate, net migration, and longevity.
This week, the ONS will release a compendium relating to the 669,531 babies born in England and Wales last year. The total was 3.7 per cent up on the previous year’s figure, the fifth successive annual rise.
The fertility rate – the average number of children a woman will bear in her lifetime – has risen to 1.87. Five years ago it reached a low of 1.63, well below the “replacement rate” needed to keep the population stable in the absence of immigration. Since then, a sharp increase in immigration has lifted the birth rate.
This week’s breakdown will reveal details including which areas have the highest and lowest birth rates; the average age of parents when their first and subsequent babies are born; the proportion of children born to married and unmarried couples, and the number born to middle-class and working-class parents.
Included in the tables will be figures relating to the country of birth of new parents. A preview of last year’s figures shows that 21.9 per cent of live births last year were to mothers born outside the UK, up from 20.8 per cent in 2005.
Of the total 669,531 births last year, 146,956 were to mothers born outside the UK. Among these, 25,948, or 3.9 per cent of total births, were to mothers born in Pakistan or Bangladesh, while 33,689, or five per cent, were to mothers born in Europe.
The figures do not reflect the total number of babies born in Britain’s ethnic communities because they exclude those of British-born second-generation migrants.
More than 6,000 of the European mothers were from Poland, while there were also significant numbers of babies born to migrants from the other Eastern European states that joined the European Union in 2004.
Last week the Home Office announced that anyone seeking to enter the UK in order to marry a resident will need to pass an English test before he or she is granted a visa, while the minimum age for spouse visas will rise from 18 to 21.
It also detailed a new points-based immigration system, which will exclude those from outside the EU who do not have skills that Britain needs.
(This is 2015 figures)
The average number of children per mother is 1.82 across the UK.
But in Peterborough, Cambs, which has a soaring migrant population, women give birth to an average of 2.34 babies.
The jump from 1.83 in 2001 has given the East the highest fertility rate in England.
In Wolverhampton, another area with a large influx of foreign-born mothers, the birth rate has leapt from 1.77 in 2001 to 2.02 today.
Across the West Midlands it is 1.83.
Almost a tenth of babies and toddlers in England and Wales are Muslim, census figures show
The percentage of Muslims among the under-fives is almost twice as high as in the general population, according to a breakdown of census figures
The percentage of Muslims among the under-fives is almost twice as high as in the general population
Census figures reveal a ‘startling’ shift in Britain’s demographic trend with almost a tenth of babies and toddlers born in England and Wales being Muslim.
The percentage of Muslims among the under-fives is almost twice as high as in the general population. Less than one in 200 over 85s are Muslims – an indication of the extent to which birth rate is changing the UK’s religious demographic.
The Office for National Statistics produced the breakdown of Britain’s religions and age groups. The figures, according to the Times, were extracted from data collected in the 2011 census.
One expert said it was possible that Muslims who worshipped would outnumber practising Christians. “It’s not inconceivable,” said David Voas, Professor of Population Studies at the University of Essex.
Professor Voas said he saw no prospect of Muslims becoming a majority in Britain. Rapidly growing Muslim families are making their mark on society, however. The Department for Education lists 136 Muslim schools, 125 of them in the private sector.
Britain’s population may double in 100 years 10 Dec 2013
The figures show there were 3.5 million children aged 0-4 of whom 320,000 were Muslim. That proportion is more than nine per cent and compares with a total Muslim population among all age groups of less than five per cent.
“It certainly is a startling figure,” said Professor David Coleman, Professor of Demography at the University of Oxford. “We have had substantial immigration of Muslims for a long time. Continuing immigration from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India has been added to by new immigration from African countries and from the Middle East.
“Birth rates of Muslims of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin remain quite high, although falling. There seem to be very low levels of falling away from religion among Muslims.”
Christians remain the largest religious group among those aged 0-4, at 1.5 million, 43 per cent.
Dale Barton, priest in charge at St Clement’s, a Church of England parish in Bradford, said: “This was a white working-class British area 50 years ago. They have all gone. There are two pubs hanging on by their fingertips. There’s a Labour club. One club has just gone. Shops are now Muslim-owned. I’m not decrying that. A significant number open on Christmas Day.”
Ibrahim Mogra, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain said that the large number of young Muslim children was a vote of confidence in the country by Muslims. “I just wouldn’t want our fellow citizens to be alarmed by an increase in number,” he said. “This generation is very much British. They feel very much this is their home. It’s not about Britain becoming a Muslim country but about Britain enabling the practice of Islam, which gives confidence to the vast majority of Muslims. It’s a great country to regard as our home.”
Philip Lewis, a scholar of Islam and author of Young, British and Muslim, warned that the one-in-ten birth rate statistic could “generate alarmism”.
He emphasised the variety of the Muslim population across the country, which in London included an affluent Arab elite and Europeanised Turkish Cypriots. In parts of the urban north, though, there was a “bicultural reality” of indigenous and Kashmiri working classes. “We don’t have genuine diversity in many of these northern mill towns or great swathes of Bradford,” he said.
If Government seeks the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) help, Barbadians should prepare to face more austerity. But international economist professor Andrew Rose insisted whether or not the rescue effort was home-grown or foreign, Barbados should focus on “enhancing productivity”. He said Iceland, which did not seek the IMF’s help, was the “most obvious example” for Barbados to examine if it wanted to emerge from current economic challenges. (Quote)
At last a foreign economist with a title has said something that makes sense. Maybe now policy-makers will sit up and listen.
Iceland is about the same size as Barbados and, until the global meltdown in 2008, Iceland was doing fantastically.
We can follow the re-crisis model, without overplaying our hands in the way Iceland did. Most humbly, it s what I suggested in one of my Notes….years ago. It was so clear this was the short/medium strategy, with the Singaporean model as the long-term one.
But, it is clear the squatting prime minister will not do anything and the opposition parties do not want a serious debate about economic policy.
Are we now going to have a serious debate?
TRINIDAD
” The Canadian and British political consulting firms in the eye of a global storm over alleged data misuse started their collaboration with a plan to acquire internet-browsing histories from citizens of a Caribbean country, records obtained by The Globe and Mail reveal.
The 2013 partnership between Britain’s SCL Group − a forerunner to Cambridge Analytica − and Canada’s AggregateIQ was first set in Trinidad and Tobago. This project’s ambitions would serve as a prelude to the Facebook and Brexit data controversies that came to light this month.
Records obtained by The Globe show that the Trinidad plan involved a bid to gather data − in bulk − from an internet-service provider (ISP) in the island country of 1.3 million people. The stated goal of this paid work was to use psychological profiling of voters to improve the fortunes of a Trinidadian political party.
Hants March 29, 2018 at 1:38 PM #
The 2013 partnership between Britain’s SCL Group − a forerunner to Cambridge Analytica − and Canada’s AggregateIQ (Quote)
SCL is the parent company, not a forerunner.
Barbados’ clueless leaders need to FIRST clean up the nasty crap they ALLOW, just like South Africa is doing, then move forward from there..
“WORLD NEWS
MARCH 28, 2018 / 11:16 AM / A DAY AGO
South African woman jailed in landmark ruling for racist rant
James Macharia
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – A South African court jailed a white woman on Wednesday for yelling racist abuse at a black policeman, in a case that laid bare attitudes that endure more than two decades after the end of apartheid.
In a ruling that lawyers believed to be the first prison term imposed in South Africa for verbal racial abuse, estate agent Vicki Momberg was sentenced to three years, with one year suspended, for directing deeply offensive slurs at the officer.
Previously people convicted of the same crime have been fined.
A video clip went viral following the incident in 2016 when the policeman tried to help Momberg after thieves broke into her car at night at a shopping center.
It showed her saying she wanted to be helped by a white or ethnic Indian officer, and that black people were “plain and simple useless” and “they are clueless, clueless”.
In her rant, she several times called the policeman a “kaffir”, apartheid-era slang for a black person and one of the worst terms of hate speech in South Africa.
Momberg wiped away….. (CROCODILE)……. tears as judge Pravina Rugoonandan read the ruling in a Johannesburg court, finding her guilty on four counts. Momberg’s lawyer Kevin Lawlor said she will seek the right to appeal her sentence.
The episode highlighted how 24 years after Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first black president, espousing reconciliation, it is still struggling with race relations.
Despite the emergence of a black middle class, income gaps remain clearly visible along race lines, fuelling perceptions of white privilege. Black people make up 80 percent of South Africa’s 54 million population, but most its wealth remains in the hands of whites, who account for about 8 percent.
Justice Minister Michael Masutha said the custodial sentence could “serve as a deterrent” to others. “It was a question of escalating and intensifying the fight against racism by finding even more sterner measures,” he told eNCA television.
Johannesburg-based criminal lawyer Zola Majavu, who was not involved in the case, said: “This case has been put on the spotlight, it may be the first time – at least that I’m aware of – that a person has been sentenced to jail without the option of a fine for such action.”
However, in October, two white farmers who had been filmed pushing a wailing black man into a coffin were sentenced to jail for attempted murder, assault and kidnapping.
In 2016, a court ordered Penny Sparrow, a white woman, to pay 150,000 rand ($9,941) to charity after she was found guilty of hate speech for referring to blacks as “monkeys” in a Facebook post.”
© 2018 Reuters. All Rights Reserved.
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“But in Peterborough, Cambs, which has a soaring migrant population, women give birth to an average of 2.34 babies.”
Unless 2.34 is greater than 6, 9 and 12, I am still awaiting proof that “some ethnic and religious minorities on average have six, nine, 12 children. lol
Enuff March 29, 2018 at 10:01 PM #
Do you want names, addresses and birth certificates?
With all the rubbish Ha, Ha has been spewing for the past few days, it was just a matter of time before he floated into fantasyland and tried to take everyone there with him…steupps
The modern day female would prefer use abortion as a contraceptive rather than to have even 5 children these days, they consider them 5 too many and they would be right.
“UK birth rate: Number of children being born in Britain hits 10-year low
An ageing population and declining birth rate could result in growing pressures on public services – particularly if immigration is curtailed after Brexit
Caroline Mortimer @cjmortimer Monday 20 November 2017 18:40 GMT14 comments
The number of births is at its lowest rate for 10 years – and the population is decreasing in Scotland Getty
The rate at which babies are being born in the UK has fallen to its lowest level for a decade.
There were 774,835 live births in the UK in 2016, the lowest rate since 748,563 live births in 2006 and down from a peak of 812,970 births in 2012, new data from the Office for National Statistics show.
Although the population is still growing overall – there were 597,206 deaths recorded – the new data show the demographic decline in certain parts of the UK with less immigration such as Scotland where there were 54,488 live births and 56,728 deaths.
Birth rate in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2000 to 2016 live births (per 1,000 population)
United Kingdom birth rate 2000-2016 This statistic shows the birth rate in the United Kingdom from 2000 to 2016. Birth rate is defined as the amount of live births per 1,000 populations. The overall trend was one of increase. There were however a number of year on year decreases. Particularly, 2000 to 2002 (a drop of 0.3), 2008 to 2009 (a drop of 0.5) and 2012 to 2016 (a drop of 1). Similar information is also available for London, Northern Ireland, Scotland and England and Wales.”
Different children have different gifts. The solution is simply to find out what they are and develop them and value them. We are not meant to all be the same
We are meant to complement each other. When I want my pipe fixed a brain surgeon is useless to me. It’s a visit from the plumber that makes my day.