est. 2007

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Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw Makes Shocking Revelation

Prime Minister Mia Mottley shows off a Kensington Oval ready for T20 World Cup

There has always been consensus by the BU family that at the root of our problems is an irrelevant and dysfunctional education system.  It was therefore important to listen  to Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw as she and her team appeared before the 2019 House Appropriation Debate – Standing Finance Committee OWN the problems with a promise to reform the education system.

It was interesting to note Bradshaw’s assessment of the current education system if compared to her predecessor Ronald Jones. He offered no similar critiques during his lengthy tenure as minister of education. What a difference a general election makes!

A poignant moment came in the presentation when Minister Bradshaw stated that problems identified by the criterion test at 9 years old were not remediated before the child had to do the 11+. It there translated to young children condemned as failures by society. Some may suggest another poignant moment occurred when the Prime Minister asked Chief Education Officer what recommendation would she make to improve the leadership in the schools. Her response will floor you!

Watch Santia Bradshaw, Minister of Education, Technological and Vocational Training share the challenges and opportunities  faced by her ministry.

A must listen for all Barbadians!

 

266 responses to “Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw Makes Shocking Revelation”

  1. David Avatar
    David

    Taken from BU FB timeline:

    [facebook url="https://www.facebook.com/BarbadosLabourParty/videos/348374045770184/" /]

    This is my first post in a long while as something arose in the Parliament of Barbados today that is of great interest to me, and possibly to you as well.

    I was listening to today’s Parliamentary debate on educational reform and came away with the impression that the country’s preeminent secondary school (since 1733), Harrison College will be destroyed. Actually “destroyed” may be too strong a word. Perhaps I should say that the school will be purged of its perceived (or real) “cancer” of elitism and classism. This “problem” was mentioned several times by at least one speaker during that period of the debate (about 3:30 – 4:30 PM) and I did not detect any dissent by other Parliamentarians.

    I was therefore left to wonder exactly what “problem” is being/has been created by the school, its teachers and heaven forbid, its students? Against whom is this “problem” being directed? What are the negative impacts of this “problem”, if any? How have the impacted persons dealt with the “problem”? Have any remedies been effective? Have some Parliamentarians been victims of the “problem”? Finally, is the Parliament of Barbados infested with the same cancer?

    I do “confess” that I am a former student of Harrison College and the school did try to inoculate me from the cancerous infections of uneducation. For some strange and obscure reason, the school absolutely insisted that academic over achievement is to be preferred over under achievement. Yes, I am a “victim”.

    I also concede that it was the Government of Barbados that knowingly fiested this cancerous school upon me when I was at the tender age of ten years old (and thus unable to make decisions for myself). Am I now in a position to seek leave for redress from the said Government of Barbados, given that Parliamentarians have clearly made thier accusations against the school a matter of public record?

    Surely you would agree that my perverse interpretation of today’s Parliamentary debate is a reflection of the folly of the proposed action against the “problem” of Harrison College!

    Further, it seems to me that Harrison College and by extension what it “represents”, is merely a surrogate for, and a legacy of the colonial history of Barbados. It is obviously an easy target as the school and its students and teachers are not in a position to defend themselves against the “tyranny” of the Parliament of Barbados. Given this imbalance, the sentiments expressed today by Parliamentarians may ultimately be seen by history as “Parliamentary Bullying”!

    Even further, I detect that Parliamentarians in their heart of hearts, really want to take on a “true” colonial “problem” that persists until this very day (from since 1627). However, shall we ever see today’s passionate Parliamentary ire be directed against the true ongoing institutional legacy of the colonial past, namely the Monarchy of Barbados and the Westminster form of Government? Needless to say, doctor cure yourself first!

    Do our Parliamentary leaders have the fortitude, let alone the wisdom to tackle the real “problem” and not merely its perceived surrogate, a secondary school of innocents?

    Will the proposed surgery on Harrison College cure Barbados of the scourge of elitism and classism? Some how, I think not!

    I say to the Parliamentarians, leave the school alone and go and fight some real battles with all the intestinal and anatomical fortitude that you will require. Go pick on someone of your own size!

    In summary, I think that the current public educational system has worked well for some of the students. In fact, I would wager about fifty (50) percent of the students. That’s my guess. Rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater, there should be a delicate and thoughtful approach to address the “academic” underachievement of the remaining fifty (50) percent. Therein lies part of the solution, simply target the under achieving 50 percent with non-academic education, and leave the achieving 50 percent alone. However, there seems to be much vested emotions in destroying, or at least curing Harrison College, which is but one of about about 21 public secondary schools, and nine (9) private schools that offer secondary education.

    In deo fides.

    Regards,

    Roland Clarke PhD UPenn (1995) HC (1978)

  2. Learnography Avatar
    Learnography

    Root of the educational problems is the teaching theories of pedagogy. Teaching system is not effective in the learning transfer of classroom. We have to change change the prevailing school system for the effective knowledge transfer of students. Thanks for the writing

  3. Ping Pong Avatar
    Ping Pong

    Imagine 30 nine year olds sit a criterion reference test. The test results come back sometime towards the end of the school year. 30 different educational profiles are thus determined. However a single teacher in the following academic year is to respond to the strengths/ weaknesses of 30 students while being required to complete a syllabus of “new” work in that year.

    Talk is cheap!

  4. Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right Avatar
    Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right

    Should one find a Youtube posting of this item please let de ole man know causing I ent willing to use dese fellers facebook tings dem causing I frighten to get a Charles Me Love you long time Infection like de one wunna manufacture heah in *** when wunna ef up de ole man old gmail account heheheheheh

    Tank you very much for that act.

    @ Roland Clarke Phd

    The problem with these Public Relations show is that THEY HAVE TO DELIVER SOMETHING else it will be seen for just that a PR show.

    For the Mottley Regime to continue to fool people outside of the regime that something is going on IT MUST FIRST FOOL PEOPLE ON THE INSIDE THAT THEY ARE DOING SOMETHING!

    This is the strength of any dictatorship so that this seeming semiautonomy among the multiple party leaders/ministers is to create a false sense of power for a Minister, IN THIS CASE THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, to ensure that the regime’s pimps will not renege on pledging their power rather their loyalty to Mugabe.

    This formal CBC show seeks to leverage this PR stunt to the max while Mugabe effects a pretend “ceding of decision-making authority” to these pretend Ministers and Ministers in the Ministry of *** FOR 45 minutes

    By offering these 45 minutes in the spotlight Mugabe is able to have the poochlickers believe that they are part of the INNER RED CIRCLE.

    But that feeting power is cancelled AT THE END OF THE MONKEY PARADE

  5. David Avatar
    David

    You seem entrenched with your conspiracy lense. If you read closely you will see that the video embedded in the blog is YouTube. Secondly have we had a minister in recent years speak to the issues as was done yesterday? Does talk precede action? How do we measure if this minister and government can implement change? The answer is obvious, civil society must continue to advocate and agitate to hold officials accountable.

  6. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    Forgive the uneducated, what is a “criterion test”? And which society condemns 11 year olds as “failures”

  7. Dullard Avatar
    Dullard

    @David BU

    Come on boss!!

    Why do you remain so enthralled by talk? Why don’t you reserve the applause until after we see real change?

    I submit to you that this approach is part of the problem why Bim is where it is. We are too impressed by fluff and pretty talk and plans. If only we reserve the praise until we see progress.

    I thought you left Hope Road earlier in the year…

  8. WARU, Crazy & Unstable, Hogging the Blog Avatar
    WARU, Crazy & Unstable, Hogging the Blog

    You have two of the oldest schools on the island STILL named after 2 repulsive slave masters…who were vicious criminals and racists …Harrison and Combermere…that alone is insulting and disrespectful to every black student AND THEIR ANCESTORS….who enters those doors with innocent unaware minds….expecting to have a wholesome education…devoid of MISEDUCATION……

    None of them can give a clear explanation about why after hundreds of years you still have schools named after criminal slave masters…

    first….get rid of those two blighted and cursed slave master’s names…free the schools from the stigma of being slave owner’s schools..

    then upgrade the education system across the board.. particularly….. WHAT IS TAUGHT…

    get rid of the goddamn useless 11 plus…

    a good measuring stick for failure…is that most of the ministers, PMs, lawyers, public servants etc went to those pretend elitist, classist and downright racist schools…and they all turned out to be failures, unable to upgrade the island beyond the dependency level, neglecting the island and very population who pay their salaries… useless to the island and any expected progress and productivity so by extension you have failed students and a failed country..

    Happy to see some finally waking up from fantasy island…

  9. David Avatar
    David

    @Sargeant

    Here is a link which explain the criterion referenced test.

    https://gisbarbados.gov.bb/blog/assessing-primary-school-work/

  10. David Avatar
    David

    @Dullard

    Where the blogmaster comes from we must give feedback, all the time. You prefer we shut up or be always condemning?

  11. WARU, Crazy & Unstable, Hogging the Blog Avatar
    WARU, Crazy & Unstable, Hogging the Blog

    i hope this sinks right into those minds with the big egos and pretend elitism/classism

    …a good measuring stick for the island’s major failures…is that most of the ministers, PMs, lawyers, doctors public servants etc went to those pretend elitist, classist and downright racist schools…and they all turned out to be failures, unable to INTELLECTUALLY OR PHYSICALLY upgrade the island beyond the dependency level, neglecting the island and the very population who pay their salaries… useless to the island and any expected CURRENT OR FUTURE progress and productivity…. so by extension you have failed students and a failed country..

    When white people can complain about how racist Barbados is…a small country with a predominantly black majority…ya know the racism, classism, pretend elitism starts in the schools and extends outward to the parliament like a cancer and continued for decades to spread its destructive toxic poisons into the unaware population for the last 60 years…

    if you understand the symptoms…you can apply treatment and a cure..

  12. David Avatar
    David

    The blogmaster is willing to be corrected but is this the first time we have heard a minister of education voicing publicly we must dismantle the thing?

  13. Sunshine Sunny Shine Avatar
    Sunshine Sunny Shine

    Leave the school system in place because a post-Harrisonian with PhD says that we must. It is of no concern to him that we have this stupid concept of bad schools, good schools, and the 11 + that perpetuates this stupid notion. The system has worked well for 50 percent of the students? The other 50 needs an assessment as to why they underachieve. They underachieve because of unfair practices of employment; struggles associated with the cost of living, and lack of time spent with their children because they are too busy worrying about the next set of bills. Barbados presents a good few reasons for the underachievers, but if you look at the achievers, their conditions are far better than the underachievers. Look at that too as part of the problem

  14. WARU, Crazy & Unstable, Hogging the Blog Avatar
    WARU, Crazy & Unstable, Hogging the Blog

    Everything has hit rock bottom..from the economy to the education system and everything else in between…..ah don’t think anyone who can see, hear or think would be so blind as to not understand that the only way left for the island to go is up..and the only option left .is to make the requisite and appropriate changes to the education system……to all the systems, but this is the only one i think those in parliament may have enough intelligence to start fixing….unless they want more of the same and even worse coming out of an already failed education system… in which case the electorate should throw all their failed asses, out of the parliament..

  15. WARU, Crazy & Unstable, Hogging the Blog Avatar
    WARU, Crazy & Unstable, Hogging the Blog

    “Barbados presents a good few reasons for the underachievers, but if you look at the achievers, their conditions are far better than the underachievers. Look at that too as part of the problem.”

    There are only 2 groups of achievers coming out of the education system…the ones who are forced to leave the island to access opportunities abroad because as long as they are not connected or wired into the corrupt system…they cannot progress…..or achieve.

    …AND…the ones who stay on the island…are wired into the corrupt system through friendships, familial connections or whatever…but most times those on island achievers are equally corrupt and like their masters in the parliament and bar association…known only as low level common class thieves, helping their companeros to rape the island…which in turn helped them to achieve…

    we have to call it what it is before it gets twisted and those pretend elites and classists in the parliament start assigning blame when they cannot fix what they broke…

  16. David Avatar
    David

    @SSS

    It was interesting listening to the technocrats, forget the politicians.

    It serves a useful purpose if some commenters take the time to listen as well.

  17. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    Does the criterion test account for problems that may not be immediately identifiable e.g. dyslexia, poor eyesight,poor hearing etc,? Some of these tests no matter how noble the intent descend into a one size fits all template.

  18. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    Here is the problem with the education system in general

    Teacher johnny who wrote the declaration of independence

    I do know and I dont give a phuc

    teacher calls parents to come in, your son is rude, insolent. and frankly seems not to know anything

    father asks What do you mean

    I;ll show you johnny who wrote the declaration of independence

    I dont know and I dont give a phuc.

    father…..Look you little phucer if you wrote that thing you better own up to it.

  19. WARU, Crazy & Unstable, Hogging the Blog Avatar
    WARU, Crazy & Unstable, Hogging the Blog

    Last year i remember throwing a fit when i found out there were teachers …black teachers…in the so called elite schools, teaching black children how to hate themselves…at least one of those teachers i knew of has been removed…retired…the problems in the education system runs very deep…and wide…

    If they start the healing from that perspective…maybe..just maybe…they will get somewhere….by instructing the teachers in every school that self love and self-respect are traits that vulnerable children need in their lives…not self-loathing..

    the 11 plus is toxic…has always been toxic, has always been a self-hating weapon, tool and vehicle…. and unless removed, nothing will ever change…the failures will never change…no matter how the ones who sat it and thinks it made them arrive and elitist…wants to keep it in place for the pretend elite effect and want to pass on that pretence of being elite to their children and grandchildren….it is the stupidest thing i ever heard..

  20. David Avatar
    David

    @Sargeant

    Would poor results in the criterion test not present the opportunity for early detection of some issues?

  21. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Here is the great observation of a former minister of education and current prime minister. We want action, not fluffy PR words.` The failure of leadership starts at the top, not with the classroom teachers.

    Prime minister Mia Mottley has blamed education management and school leadership for a deficit that allows teenaged boys and girls to fall through the cracks.
    Mottley said: “We cannot abandon these children by just putting them out there . . . . If we have a school that is not functioning or a leader that is not leading to keep them there for two years, three years, four years . . . . How many children’s lives have been sacrificed in the interim?
    “We will continue to spin top in mud if we do not recognise that it begins with leadership and it ends with leadership. Leadership at the level of schools, at the level of Ministry is what is needed.”
    Speaking in the House of Assembly during the Appropriation Bill and Estimates hearings today, Mottley revealed that plans to introduce a new leadership position within the teaching faculty has been shelved owing to budget constraints.
    “We continue to believe that a good teacher becomes a good principal,” she said. “My one regret is not being able at this stage fiscally to introduce the Master Teacher. Good teachers must be paid well without being promoted into leadership where they become managers.”
    The Prime Minister, a former Minister of Education, posed a direct question to Chief Education Officer Karen Best seeking recommendations on how best to weed out “bad” and non-functioning principals.
    In responding, Best reminded Mottley who spent seven years in the education ministry, that there is process in place that they are forced to follow.
    Best told the premier: “There are some schools where we have challenges with the leadership. We have been providing the assistance for them.”
    When pressed further, the Chief Education Officer said a “contractual arrangement” in hiring principals would allow the Ministry the power to act when a principal is not doing their job.
    Best declared: “The system that we have does not allow for principals, teachers or anybody for that matter on contracts. They are there, they are appointed. If we have principals who are placed on contract and they are not performing they would then have to move on. I believe we should move to a system where we have persons being placed on contract.”
    The Prime Minister said while the Edna Nicholls School was Government’s first point for deviant youth, she is mindful that another institution to handle chronic delinquents is needed.
    Mottley had made similar comments on Monday in the House when she made the link between deviant behaviour and the current surge in violence. At the time, the Attorney-General and his team were before the Standing Committee.
    She said then: “There has to be an institution that allows those children who literally are too difficult to be managed in the secondary school setting to be taken into another setting and to be able to be given the dedicated time, attention and discipline to stop them from literally falling off the edge and entering into a world of crime from which they may never return.” (QUOTE)

  22. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    The Minister has said nothing new. The Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT)under the leadership of Comrade John Cumberbatch highlighted the failures of the system in the 70s.
    Quite frankly, unless the eleven plus is scrapped and a system of continuos assessment instituted , what we got yesterday remains nothing but hot air.
    I have warned repeatedly that we cannot produce a 2019 model on a 1919 production line. Yesterday was nothing more than tinkering with a system that is hugely responsible for the myriad socio economic problems that have now enveloped the country,
    We need to stop looking at presentations and seek substance.

  23. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ William,

    Much as I appreciated your continuing invaluable contributions to BU, 11+ versus continuous assessments is not that simple. We have just had both n the UK and the results scan be surprising.

  24. Dullard Avatar
    Dullard

    @ David

    So the education system in Barbados is not fit for purpose. Who knew? Ms Bradshaw is just stating the obvious.

    What she could do to show that the Gov’t is serious, is to publish the performance of all schools for the public to look at and form their own opinions. Why is this a state secret?

    This is the Dullards prediction. In 10 years we will still be having this conversation. Why? Because it is easier to talk about doing than to do.

  25. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Another political speech without sound reasoning and rationality
    As usual Barbados is leaping forward with backward movement

  26. Dullard Avatar
    Dullard

    “we have this stupid concept of bad schools, good schools”

    Why is this a stupid concept?

    Aren’t some schools better than others? It was and will always be like this. Where would the world be without centres of excellence?

    The issue is not Harrison College or Queens, etc. But not making the ”other schools” fit for purpose.

  27. Smarty Avatar
    Smarty

    “Would poor results in the criterion test not present the opportunity for early detection of some issues?”

    @David. For starters the results are not shared with parents. Our system repeatedly undermines the parent s role. Further 9 is too late in the context of the 11+

  28. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ Hal
    This is nothing new ,they always blame the teachers. Ms. Mottley knows fully well of the role played by politics in the ministry and it was no different when she was minister of education. She cannot now pretend that she does not know that many outstanding teachers never sought to be principals because of the politics.
    A real debate about the politics in that ministry over the last forty years will open a can of worms that will brutally shock the country.
    In terms of being a political football; the ministry of education is just as infected as any of the SOEs.

  29. Ping Pong Avatar
    Ping Pong

    What makes a bad school or a good school? Mr Kirk Humphrey asked an insightful question which was not directly addressed by Ms Bradshaw. He asked what accounts for two groups of students having almost identical CE marks but after going to different secondary schools, having very different academic outcomes?

    How does introducing continuous assessment change that scenario?

  30. Ping Pong Avatar
    Ping Pong

    What is continuous assessment? continuous stress vs stress on one day?

  31. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ Hal
    Your point is well taken. However there must be an exercise that can carefully husband our Human Resources and it must start at the primary level. I remain a proponent of continuous assessment because it can be tailored rather quickly to fit the needs of our society.
    No system is perfect but the eleven plus has outlived its usefulness at all levels.

  32. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    The first thing we should accept is that the schools are not bad – it’s the system.

  33. David Avatar
    David

    @smarty

    Agree with you. Minister Bradshaw has moved the conversation along. We have the opportunity to measure her performance this time next year. Did you listen to the technocrats?

    @Dullard

    The blogmaster will drive in the positive lane.

  34. Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right Avatar
    Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right

    @ the Honourable Blogmaster

    You said and I quote

    ” ..@Sargeant Here is a link which explain the criterion referenced test.

    https://gisbarbados.gov.bb/blog/assessing-primary-school-work/ …”

    So in the one breath you point out that the Facebook movie will not call the fbsbx com website and thereafter harvest the user’s Facebook name that they are logged in on without their knowledge

    And yes my CONSPIRACY lens is ot to point out that the site to see the rules and regulations, is in fact a Charles Me Love You Long Time Jong website with embedded pixels

    STEUPSEEE!

  35. David Avatar
    David

    You claim to have state of the art security policies VPN proxy servers and the like yet unable to click a public link?

    Steuspe indeed!

  36. Jefferson Cumberbatch Avatar
    Jefferson Cumberbatch

    What makes a bad school or a good school? Mr Kirk Humphrey asked an insightful question which was not directly addressed by Ms Bradshaw. He asked what accounts for two groups of students having almost identical CE marks but after going to different secondary schools, having very different academic outcomes?

    Is this a problem? Different outcomes must also factor in the home environment. Do/can the parents read? Do they encourage conversation/reading or is it just social media and television every day after school. GIGO!

  37. WARU, Crazy & Unstable, Hogging the Blog Avatar
    WARU, Crazy & Unstable, Hogging the Blog

    “William Skinner March 6, 2019 7:25 AM

    The first thing we should accept is that the schools are not bad – it’s the system.”

    On point..there are no bad schools.

    And without backing and forthing …if we help those who live in their comfort zones on Cuckoo Land to see the reality of how and why the island FAILED….starting with the FACT…that after UK cut and ran leaving their VICTIMS behind in the Caribbean…with an education system DESIGNED by UK….a system which was merely an EXPERIMENT….ehich was never upgraded by the pretend leaders cause they were all brainwashed by the same system….and obviously still dont understand why they themselves are like that mentally……..still dont understand that all they are is an EXPERIMENT…

    those of us who understand KNOW…that 99.9999% of all experiments…ALWAYS FAIL….ergo Barbados is a failed experiment…made even worse by dumb, visionless leaders.

  38. Ping Pong Avatar
    Ping Pong

    @ Mr Cumberbatch

    two points: First note the two groups are said to have near identical CE marks and second, my query as to whether continuous assessment will change the scenario as given.

    I don’t have the problem.

  39. Ping Pong Avatar
    Ping Pong

    I very strongly believe that the relative ranking of children re: allocation to secondary schools will be the same under continuous assessment as now obtains under the present CE exam.

    Try again if the objective is to ensure that the children of Fort George Heights attend Parkinson.

  40. David Avatar
    David

    @William

    Was slavery abolished in 1834 because there were protest in 1834?

    Was institutionalized apartheid in South Africa abolished because protests started when Mandela made the long walk to freedom?

  41. WARU, Crazy & Unstable, Hogging the Blog Avatar
    WARU, Crazy & Unstable, Hogging the Blog

    And just to reinforce how toxic the education system is…cause am sure most have already forgotten..just recently a very bright boy child at Grantley Adams school, a natural born leader, stood up for his and his fellow students human rights when the government changed and placed their toxic yardfowls in the school canteen to serve the children bad food….and the kids protested and refused to buy food that could poison them and which cost more than their parents could afford…..

    ….this child was sentenced to 2 months at home for standing up for his rights and those of his fellow students and then the same ministry of miseducation…after punishing the child for 2 months…withholding his education.. tried to torment and punish him even further by attempting to drag him off to a distant school for troubled kids……clear across the other side of the island…effectively sending a message to black kids that you have no right to stand up for your rights…as black children…

    Maybe Santia can tell us how that investigation into the clear violation of that child’s human rights is coming along.

    Then there is the even worse violation of black people’s rights by the ministry of jackasses.

    ….the only people on the island not allowed to home school their children…under threats of arrest….is the majority black population….everyone else is given an immediate greenlight to homeschool their children…..without any questions……some never even send their children to the school system….and no one checks on them…they wont dare..but always have handcuffs ready for their own people.

    The problem is the school system..,the toxic leaders, the toxic ministry of miseducation…which have all PROVEN themselves to be useless.

    Clean that up …first…,then find ways to assist the traumatized parents into paying more attention…parental classes cannot hurt..,the money the leaders steal by the hundreds of millions..,it needs only a small fraction to set up parental classes.

  42. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    Seems like there is a concerted effort to link crime to some schools to 11 plus to failures in the education system to a breakdown of management in the Education Dept.as well as the schools to assessment of primary school students to everything one could think of, however the Minister said that the “deficits” go back decades now that covers both Parties that Governed Barbados and includes the present PM.

    With all that in a few weeks we will see the celebration of 11 plus students and later the celebration of scholarship winners.

    I give up

  43. David Avatar
    David

    @Sargeant

    Classism has always been alive and well in Barbados. You are correct to be suspicious there is a biase how data is collected.

  44. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ William,

    Classroom teaching is continuous assessment. Good teachers should be able to assess the understanding of every pupil after every lesson; that is also the purpose of marked work – in the classroom and homework. There is also a role for mock exams, to give teachers an idea of how pupils perform under exam conditions.
    All pupils are not academic, so testing them under academic conditions at age 9 or 11 says more about the system than it says about the pupils; there must also be provisions for late developers; the model I like is the Staten Island college model, which provides a weekend (fulltime) standard.
    There must also be room for technical education ( ie Germany) and not just using education as a production line for lawyers and economists. We must also look at the different impact of continuous assessment and sudden death exams on boys and girls (ie the UK experience).
    In a speech a few years ago to a Commonwealth Secretariat conference in Barbados I made this same point. Women all over the world are out-performing men, even in Saudi Arabia. There is a reason for that.
    In Barbados we have unique problems, including the social conservatism that cripples the country. Before any of us on BU was born the old First Grade schools have been out-performing the others. They still are. Why? Is it the quality of the teaching? The quality of the pupil intake? What? Can we bring the other schools up to grade, or do we as parents just want our children to go to the old First Grade schools, get national scholarships, and bugger the rest?
    The question of the home environment is irrelevant. My generation of young people enjoyed private lessons (in my case Mr Greenidge) paid for by parents who in many instances could not read or write, or not very advanced. But they understood the value of education. It is also the immigrant experience, with the exception of Caribbeans in the UK, but that is another story.
    Part of the home environment in Barbados was what we called playing ‘school’, when the older kids will teach the younger ones. On reflection, that was an incredible experience, especially during the long summer break when it acted to keep young brains alert.
    Finally, and this is important, the post-war generations who enjoyed a high quality of secondary education failed to make any contribution to their old communities. I have said here before that J.O. Morris, of St Giles, was the best educator I have ever encountered (in my limited experience) and the school itself was the Eton of Barbados (@ William, you know this from experience). Where did those values go?
    One inspiration I had while at St Giles was looking up at the plaques on the wall and reading off the names of those who had gone on and up; Grantley Herbert Adams stood out.
    Our failure is not one of households, as BU believes, but of our collective national leadership – poor and rich, black and white. We can keep finding excuses, or face reality. Barbados is a failed state.

  45. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    About violence in schools isn’t this a case of the chickens coming home to roost? We have never been attuned to conflict resolution it was always “if someone hits you hit e/she back”.

    An eye for an eye leaves both blind

  46. WARU, Crazy & Unstable, Hogging the Blog Avatar
    WARU, Crazy & Unstable, Hogging the Blog

    Pretty ironic that all the pretend elites who attended the pretend elitist, classist, racist schools and headed with breakneck speed to the parliament, bar association etc….turned out to be thieves, just like the british who designed their racist education system…lol

    Karma lives.

  47. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Sargeant,

    An eye for an eye is Biblical justice.

  48. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    A lot of hot hair nothing would change
    In any case Barbados is so far behind and does nit have the financial resources to keep it education system in pace with the global economy
    All this hot air will amount to nothingness
    Meanwhile govt continues to blow smoke in the face of the people while using Parliament as a reflecting mirror

  49. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ David
    Anybody(you included) who believes what was said in parliament yesterday was “poignant” and earth shattering, has not been following the on going debate about the educational system .
    I don’t understand your questions.

  50. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Mariposa,

    You are right. We like it as it is. The first thing Ms Bradshaw should do is publish in full the CXC exam results for each school.

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