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Education Reform a Must

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

Lost amid the noise of a struggling economy, navigating a pandemic and more recent ash fall from La Soufrière is the decision by the government to create the Education Reform Unit headed by Dr. Idamay Denny.

For many years commentators have been pleading with successive governments the urgent need to transform how we educate our citizens to ensure Barbados ride the crest of innovation in order to sustain global competitiveness. Increasingly the emergence of technology and other innovative approaches to create and distribute products and services demand we change how we prep our citizens.

The Education Reform Unit‘s mandate it has been reported is to formulate, implement, monitor and evaluate reform initiatives aimed at transforming the education sector. Lest we forget transforming the education system is listed in the 2018 Barbados Labour Party Manifesto. Unfortunately there is not much to be heard from the political and non governmental opposition besides the usual noise. In fairness to them the citizenry is blinkered and therefore divided on the issue of eduction reform. We content ourselves with debating if to discontinue the 11+.

Critics will argue several studies have been produced, why is it necessary to create a project unit. Others may suggest trying to create change from studies whose shelf life has expired is an exercise in futility. What the blogmaster accepts is that change is constant and change we must if we desire to remain comfortably in the saddle.

Covid 19 has further exposed the dysfunction in local operating and business models. The time is overdue to build consensus on educate our people to drive the change required to sustain ourselves. All of the changes we rail about daily will not happen by accident. The perquisite to change movement has to be triggered by thought leadership. We must create a culture in the country that is about fuelling ideas, fuelling knowledge capital and then executing the delivery of tasks to achieve a national objective that feeds our capacity to be globally competitive in order to comfortably support ourselves.

Items like teaching coding and robotics should have been integrated in the school curriculum a long time ago. When BU attempted to discuss the role digital currencies, cybersecurity and non traditional approaches to doing business in Barbados we solicited noise from the usual suspects. This is the global trending, we have no choice albeit late in the day to educated our citizens to ensure we are not left further behind.

The blogmaster extends best wishes to the success of the Education Reform Unit albeit.

110 responses to “Education Reform a Must”

  1. Wily Coyote Avatar
    Wily Coyote

    Another massive make employment for another group of LIMING civil servants on the populace payroll.

  2. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ Wiley Coyote
    Do not be so fast. She was always on the Ministry’s payroll. This is just another rearranging of the chairs on the deck of the tourist ship Barbados. This is an attempt to correct a past error.
    @ David BU
    The Ministry of Education business is that of transformation. As far as I am aware it has never reneged from that role. Your catalogue of to do lists are all in progress but not in the form or at the phase of the transformation process that you appear to put them. It is this rush that is causing corruption in the digitization process.The basic education infrastructure needs to be laid. I suggest that commenters try to understand the process before keyboarding.

  3. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    Teachers should record themselves for youtube type lessons
    several teachers on same subject can offer different perspectives and the brain combines all of them into one understanding

  4. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    We have to stop thinking of Education Reform, solely as a means of making a dollar, and focus more on Education Reform as an instrument that is geared towards the development of the whole person.

  5. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    The original concept of African academics was predicated upon three core principles:
    (1) know thyself
    (2) know thy environment (3) Know thy society.
    But the western model of academics, seems to be predicated upon the principles of social and economic mobility.

  6. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    The Resident Teacher and prolific cut and paster pastor on #SOUNDBITESUNDAY was very poor

  7. Critical Analyzer Avatar
    Critical Analyzer

    This is just another way to put taxpayers’ money in the hands of consultants and party supporters pockets.

    All the Education Reform Unit will do is carry out the same studies, come to the same conclusion and put forward the same recommendations all the previous studies now sitting in Filing Room 13 did. Not one thing will change. The children with learning problems will still get ignored and waste their entire time at primary school and not be able to read as good as a nursery school child.

    All that is needed is a Student Assessment Unit staffed with the personnel level necessary to carry out tests for the common learning disabilities such a dyslexia, vision, hearing, speech, psychological and child abuse challenges before the child has gone through the entire primary school system. Once you assess every child by the time they leave Infants B and identify the major impediments to their progress, they can be funneled into the appropriate programs or corrective action taken.

  8. Tony Avatar
    Tony

    Sir Ernest Deighton Mottley
    University Medical Center.

    Formerly: Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

    Dam. I love it…Deserving indeed…

  9. RUM & COKES Avatar
    RUM & COKES

    reparations for slavery will cost England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 10 trillion pounds every 50 years????

    African and African American Studies, Descriptive Article, Early Modern History (1492-1789), Economic History, Political History, World History 
October 19, 2016

    Barbados Slave Codes

    ‘Slaves Wanted’ Advertisement for the Island of Barbados | Courtesy of Lascelles Slavery Archive

    MAALIK STANSBURY
    In 1627, English colonizers began to settle in Barbados, an eastern Caribbean island, to expand their territory. Their primary reason for coming to Barbados was for planting sugar, so that England might avoid having to buy sugar from other European nations that produced sugar on their own Caribbean islands. The English saw how strong the demand for sugar was. Since sugar cane grew naturally on Barbados, the English saw Barbados as a lucrative opportunity.

    Earliest known map of the Island of Barbados | Drawn by Richard Ligon in 1657 | Courtesy of the British Library Online Gallery
    However, the Englishmen who wanted to engage in this business had to decide who to send to Barbados to grow, harvest, and process the sugar cane into refined sugar. This was not an easy task, but these Englishmen did have a number of Irish prisoners serving various sentences. They decided on a way for these Irish prisoners to work off their sentences on Barbados sugar plantations. They sent thousands of indentured Irish prisoners to Barbados.1

    As the years of growing and exporting this material continued, the English began to think of better ways for the crop to be harvested and exported faster. They needed a higher efficiency route, as well as a way that was cheaper, because the Irish indentured servants did receive some form of salary, even though they were indentured. By the 1670s, African slaves, a cheaper source of labor being used throughout the Caribbean islands, became the alternative to Irish indentured servants. As the English continued to expand their plantations, they began importing African slaves in increasing numbers.2
    Between 1627 and 1807, more than 400,000 Africans, mainly originating from West Africa, had been brought to Barbados as slaves to work on sugar plantations. The English planters would request and receive more slaves whenever they believed they needed more for the plantations. The Africans were viewed as nothing more than interchangeable machine parts in the process of sugar production. The treatment experienced by the Africans was among the most inhumane in human history.3
    Starting in 1640, Africans were thought of as inferior to Englishmen. Africans were not thought to have the capacity to be intelligent. In consideration of how dark skin color was defined as life of lesser value than light skin color, legal codes naturally evolved out of these attitudes.4

    License Certificate for retrieving “Slave Property” | 1815 | Courtesy of the Barbados Free Press – May 27, 2007
    Although the English were continually resupplied with Africans, they felt the need to have restrictions or rules set in motion when it came to controlling the labor of African slaves. The Barbados Slave Code of 1661 created a way for planters to be able to have full capacity to control their slaves by any means they felt necessary without any legal repercussions. The Barbados Slave Code was originally enacted to serve both parties, trying to benefit the slaves and the planters; but it did not go according to plan. Slave owners were to protect their slaves from cruelty:
    [N]egroes [are] an heathenish brutish and an unsertaine dangerous kinde of people…yett wee well know by the right rule of reason and order wee are not to leave them to the Arbitrary cruele and outragious wills of every evill disposed person but soo farr to protect them as wee doo many other goods and Chattles and alsoe somewhat farther as being created Men though without the Knowledge of God in the world.5
    The slaves did receive one positive from the Barbados Slave Code: the ability to have a change a clothing once a year. The planters, on the other hand, were provided with many new ways to keep their slaves in line. They had the right and the authority to chastise, whip, brand, lacerate, cripple, set them on fire, or murder them with no negative consequences. The reason is during this time the English common Law, which included the right to a jury and judge, was not offered to the Africans, showing that they did not have the same rights as the planters. Africans were unable to be assured any of these statutes if their English masters harmed them in anyway.6

    The Barbados Slave Codes began to spread from Barbados to Jamaica, Antigua, and also to South Carolina, where these Codes became the legal basis for slavery and the treatment of slaves in many of the thirteen colonies.7

    1 Hilary McD. Beckles, “A ‘riotous and Unruly Lot’: Irish Indentured Servants and Freemen in the English West Indies, 1644-1713,” The William and Mary Quarterly 47, no. 4 (1990): 503–7. ↵
    2 Hilary McD. Beckles, “A ‘riotous and unruly lot’: Irish Indentured Servants and Freemen in the English West Indies, 1644-1713,” The William and Mary Quarterly 47, no. 4 (1990): 505. ↵
    3 Kenneth Morgan, “Review of Caribbean Exchanges: Slavery and the Transformation of English Society, 1640-1700, by Susan Dwyer Amussen,” The Journal of Modern History 81, no. 3 (2009): 667. ↵
    4 Kenneth Morgan, “Review of Caribbean Exchanges: Slavery and the Transformation of English Society, 1640-1700, by Susan Dwyer Amussen,” The Journal of Modern History 81, no. 3 (2009): 667. ↵
    5 Barbados Slave Code of 1661, as quoted in Bradley J. Nicholson, “Legal Borrowing and the Origins of Slave Law in the British Colonies,” The American Journal of Legal History 38, no. 1 (1994): 38–54. Nicholson makes the point that the 1661 Code was only slightly modified in 1676, 1682, and 1688. ↵
    6  Bradley J. Nicholson, “Legal Borrowing and the Origins of Slave Law in the British Colonies,” The American Journal of Legal History 38, no. 1 (1994): 51. ↵
    7 M. Eugene Sirmans, “The Legal Status of the Slave in South Carolina, 1670-1740,” The Journal of Southern History 28, no. 4 (1962): 462–73. ↵

    Barbados, colonization, plantations, slaves and sugar..

  10. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Critical Analyzer

    The issue of child abused is a problem for the police and the child’s psychologist or psychiatrist, but it is only the responsibility of the school authorities to identity such problem and directed it to the relevant authorities.

  11. Critical Analyzer Avatar
    Critical Analyzer

    @RUM & COKES May 5, 2021 9:38 AM

    What this have to do with the topic at hand if your own black people owned, led and operated system turning out too many not able to read the reparation nonsense talk, identify the difference between the money or count it to see if they been robbed.

    Education Reform is the topic or did you not get enough education to know to stay on topic when writing on a composition topic.

  12. Crusoe Avatar
    Crusoe

    Dompey May 5, 2021 8:54 AM We have to stop thinking of Education Reform, solely as a means of making a dollar, and focus more on Education Reform as an instrument that is geared towards the development of the whole person.

    One hundred percent. As it is, it just copies the old Cambridge system. Why not the Denmark system or US system.

    Instead, it creates certificates for the few and barriers to every other, which makes it hard for them to develop and go further.

    Go to see CXC website, unless they lock access, and read examiner comments on the performance in various papers, such as mathematics.

    In general, very few do well. Those are the grade ones and twos.

    But most do terribly and the comments from the examiners are horrendous. Most do terribly in these examinations, yet we boast of 90% literacy.

    The education system is not fit for purpose. It does not make people, it breaks them.

    The few who do well, would do well in any scenario, they do well in spite of, not because of.

    THAT is the acid test ‘do they do well because of or in spite of’.

    If it was ‘because of’, the percentage success rate would be significantly higher.

    But this happens when you have no imagination and ability to apply concepts for development and those who do are few and far between and are left out.

    It has further ramifications to the country in the long term.

    You know that I tell young people to get out and go? Yes, this is just one of the reasons why.

    There is no reward for real skills and imagination.

    We celebrate red tape and things to do and not imagination and progress.

  13. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Critical Analyzer May 5, 2021 9:11 AM
    “This is just another way to put taxpayers’ money in the hands of consultants and party supporters pockets.

    All the Education Reform Unit will do is carry out the same studies, come to the same conclusion and put forward the same recommendations all the previous studies now sitting in Filing Room 13 did. Not one thing will change. The children with learning problems will still get ignored and waste their entire time at primary school and not be able to read as good as a nursery school child.”
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Bang on!

    Just a reincarnation of the Eductech project to legally rob taxpayers as the surfeit of consultants and bullshitters queue up to feed like sharks from the tax-funded pig trough.

    It’s high time the government divest itself of the ‘delivery’ of education and training at the tertiary level and focus it dwindling resources at the primary level.

    However, the government should still play its role in the area of targeted funding standards setting and quality assurance.

    A poorly constructed foundation in education can only result in a vulnerable socio-economic building which has to face the digital high winds of international competition as can be seen from the challenges confronting the Victorian-based model of education in Barbados today.

  14. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Critical Analyzer

    And as far as students with the array of learning disabilities is concerned, the teaching strategy of segregating and categorizing students back in the day had proved counterproductive, because it did more harm than good to the self-esteem of the students. So moving forward, the strategy is to bring the resources in the classroom instead of segregating and categorizing the students as of old, so that the students can reach their full potential.

  15. Critical Analyzer Avatar
    Critical Analyzer

    @Dompey May 5, 2021 9:42 AM

    You are absolutely correct but school authorities identifying abuse or any learning disability is solely dependent on the teacher’s experience.

    To ensure no child is left behind, this and any other problem impeding a child’s progress can only be reliably identified via a structured comprehensive child assessment framework spearheaded by competent professional trained to spot the signs.

    Education is not cheap and we are burning lots of money the longer we delay a basic comprehensive assessment of each child.

  16. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Critical Analyzer

    You meant that better assessment needs to be had because back in the day they had to have done some kind of assessment because of the A, B and C grade stratification.

  17. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Oh shirt! A stopped clock is right twice a day!

    Murdaaaah!

    Dompey giving lessons!

    I wonder which policeman taught him that!

  18. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    Education Reform for Reparations is a Must
    Make those Brit Bastards pay I and I and I say all day every day

    Eastern tapestries

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgPDGhy0n1g

  19. Critical Analyzer Avatar
    Critical Analyzer

    @Miller May 5, 2021 9:51 AM
    Tertiary education is still a necessity for our country to keep pace with the rest of the world but there are too many useless degrees money is being wasted on.

    The tertiary funding model needs to be changed to one where the student is allowed to pursue as many degrees as they desire but they must sign an agreement to repay the costs at a 0% interest rate over a mutually agreed maximum period of time from 1 to 20 years.

    Tertiary funding problem solved.

  20. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    S.O.S.
    I’m moderated like GP/Hal/John

  21. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Nothing much will change as long as those SLAVE CODES and SLAVE LAWS remain on the statue books…where THEY ARE RIGHT NOW.

    they have no shame….none of the frauds in the parliament.

  22. Verona Michael Avatar
    Verona Michael

    Stupse. All who are criticizing the current system have benefitted from it just as it is. Life is not a level playing field and consequently the education system should reflect this fact of life. This is exactly what the current system does. Do not punish the children who excel academically all for the sake that “no child should be left behind” whatever that means. Our problem as Barbadians is that when America sneezes, we catch a cold. Study the Japanese education system (and that is why their citizens will always excel) and then put it into practice, not the crazy and stupid American system of lowering standards to accommodate all and sundry.

  23. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    @ david king and his kingly character
    I’m in a double moderation probation detention boderation aggravation situation

  24. Critical Analyzer Avatar
    Critical Analyzer

    @Dompey May 5, 2021 10:23 AM
    The assessment I am referring to is not a normal school test where they A, B, C or some percentage.

    I’m talking about a battery of learning disability assessment test before each child reaches Class 1 at the latest. These assessments would comprise of tests like, a vision test, hearing test, health check, dyslexia test.

    The student assessment unit would be required to determine and create the tests forming the assessment, keeping pace with the international community and updating the tests administered as things change. they can also spearhead the development of solutions and recommend special programs and teaching changes.

    People in this unit might even end up at the forefront of education producing research papers on student assessment.

  25. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    “Everything means nothing ↔️”
    At the beginning of World War II, blacks were not allowed to serve as pilots in the military. A 1925 U.S. Army War College report had gone so far as deeming them not just inferior, but also incapable of operating complex machinery.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6F32Jaz2g4

  26. RUM & COKES Avatar
    RUM & COKES

    @ Critical Analyzer

    Education improvement suggestions:

    Signature schools that will focus on the learning styles and interests of our children, including academic and technical subjects, trades, business, sports, arts and special needs education. 

    1 The development of an Education Authority;
    2 The implementation of the Learning First Program; 
    3 The phasing out of middle schools and introduction of signature schools; and,
    4 A consultation process on the introduction of parish primary schools.

    • challenges encountered, 
    • improvements needed for the System, 
    • parental engagement, 
    • community and business engagement, 
    • most significant learning experiences, and more.  

    • an introduction to digital reporting processes; 
    • identifying national and core educational priorities; 
    • understanding and building on the public school case for change; 
    • understanding what is design thinking; 
    • changing mindsets to design new solutions for redesigning the public school system; 
    • how to deliver better outcomes for learners, and 
    • using research to inform the school redesign process. 
    • establish exceptionalities and alternative education for students. 

    Refurbish and redesigned public primary schools will expand courses and programme offerings to provide students with the range of educational experiences and services that meet international standards.

  27. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Verona Michael

    Since the American Academic system is this substandard system, why is it that people from all part of the world strive so hard to attend the Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Brown’s, Stanford, and Cornell etc?

  28. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Verona Michael

    I find it rather funny that a country like the United States with this Substandard academic system still produces the most Nobel Prize Winners in the world?

  29. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    The Light-Bringer
    The guru is seen as the one who “dispels the darkness of ignorance.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C1vR3d0aYU

  30. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    @ Dompey

    You seem to be suggesting the American educational system plays an important role in persons winning the Nobel Peace Prize. I suggest you should acquaint yourself with the criteria used in awarding the prize.
    And, you’ve over looked the important fact that several of those NPP laureates were not born in the USA and would’ve gained their initial tertiary level education in the countries of their birth.

    I’ll give you one example. German born Joachim Frank, shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2017 with Richard Henderson and Jacques Dubochet.

    He graduated from the University of Freiburg with a bachelor’s degree in Physics, a diploma from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and a PhD from the Technical University of Munich……… all in Germany.

  31. David Avatar
    David

    The level/standard of our education is can be easily measured in our (in)ability to compete in the global market place today and where the trending is pointing tomorrow and current state the economy.

  32. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Artax

    Just google and see who has the number one university in the world and tell me if it isn’t Harvard?

  33. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Artax

    I don’t care who you all characterized the American academic system, the fact of the matter is, America has the world best universities.

  34. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    “Items like teaching coding and robotics should have been integrated in the school curriculum a long time ago.”

    Yes. This discussion is akin to planning to improve a car and debating if we should put wheels on it.

    Regardless of what the committee decides, it should be clear that Barbados is lagging in the field of robotics and coding. The ready availability of information over the internet means that talented Barbadians can develop online courses tailored to the island or Bajans can go online and acquire relevant training. With a little effort and planning, we can easily move from classroom training to nationwide training in coding.

    With a little more thought this could be a quick win without the use of a committee\unit\board.
    For your amusement – Committee
    A group of the unwilling, chosen by the unfit, to do the unnecessary.
    A body that keeps minutes and wastes hours.
    An organism with six or more legs and no brain.
    A group of people who individually can do nothing but as a group decide that nothing can be done.
    A vehicle with six steering wheels and the engine that has just quit.
    Columbus had an advisory committee he would probably still be at the dock.
    Going to go for the jugular vein and for the quick win. With increasing internet access, it should be easy for the government to pay 2 or 3 individuals to develops a series of modules

  35. TheOgazerts Avatar
    TheOgazerts

    Funding and the “brain drain” from other countries could help explain the USA dominance.
    China has become extremely prosperous and though many students come to US, some remain at home and attend excellent universities..

  36. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    Think of it as if the goverment gave XYZ all the equipment/funds it wants and then sent the top 100 students (brain drain) there. It is true that some late developers will do extremely well at other schools, but XYZ would still be the top school on the island.

  37. David Avatar
    David

    Online initiative to enhance career opportunities:
    https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/05/05/online-initiative-to-enhance-career-opportunities/

  38. Crusoe Avatar
    Crusoe

    Verona MichaelMay 5, 2021 10:43 AM Stupse. All who are criticizing the current system have benefitted from it just as it is. Life is not a level playing field and consequently the education system should reflect this fact of life. This is exactly what the current system does. Do not punish the children who excel academically all for the sake that “no child should be left behind” whatever that means

    There is so much wrong in that paragraph, it is not funny. Yes, many benefited from the system , in spite of.

    On the ‘punish the children who excel’. Certainly not. They worked hard. However, it was generally not the official educational system that got them there.

    Ninety percent of those who ‘excel academically’ had private lesson upon private lesson, often from the same teachers out of school and could afford it.

    Only a few excelled without those lessons. A VERY few. Most had lessons up the wazoo, to get there.

    How can a system be working when seventy percent of pupils leave without the grades for university and of the thirty percent who do, half do lessons and of those who get the top grades, ninety percent do lessons?

    So, the majority of children spend six hours per day in school classrooms, yet cannot pass an exam at a decent grade after five years in school. And that is what happens only to CSEC level.

    How in the RH can that be a working system? Only a complete JA would call it that.

    The ones who get to A Level are those who got there in spite of the system. Yes, there are good teachers, bless them.

    I am not shaming those ones. But speaking generally and on the overall performances, this is the reality.

    Those who appear in the papers in August, ninety percent can thank their private tutors for that success. And yes, their own hard work.

    This is an exhibition of cognitive dissonance, seeing results like this and claiming that the system is working.

    People spending five years in school and leaving with two CSEC’s at grade three, if they are lucky.

    And some claiming that the system is working. Got to be RH mad.

  39. TheOgazerts Avatar
    TheOgazerts

    @David
    That is a big, bold and beautiful move. A quick win
    The company I am working allows some of its employees to take courses from Coursera.
    A next quick win would be identify what training is truly needed and try to develop this locally.

  40. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Critical Analyzer May 5, 2021 10:39 AM

    “@Miller May 5, 2021 9:51 AM
    Tertiary education is still a necessity for our country to keep pace with the rest of the world but there are too many useless degrees money is being wasted on.”
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Never intended to argue that “tertiary education” was NOT a necessity.

    Just don’t think that in the digital world of the 21st Century the government of Barbados should be the main provider or delivery vehicle of the training and development programmes to the country’s human capital at the tertiary level.

    Just look at the quality of the contribution from the UWI in preparing the tertiary-level graduates for effective management of the country’s public sector today (for example the BRA) and try to rate it compared to what was delivered to the public when ‘Grammar’ school graduates and mere 7th standard educated ‘civil’ servants were at the helm and in the trenches.

    You even underscored that observation when you posited that “many useless degrees money is being wasted on” [like gender studies and not STEM].

  41. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    @Crusoe
    You are a much more patient man than I am. Iost interest immediately, but you forced me to return to it.

    “All who are criticizing the current system have benefitted from it just as it is.”
    That is a lie. Some who did not benefit are also criticizing it. Some who benefited like is as it is.

    “Life is not a level playing field and consequently the education system should reflect this fact of life.”
    What is being said here. If you are poor and have no money, then you should get an education that reflect your poverty.
    I was unable to decipher the sentence and will wait on an explanation. Education is much more than entering and exiting a school door.in the same state that you went in.

    .”This is exactly what the current system does.”
    Well then the current system needs fixing

    ” Do not punish the children who excel academically all for the sake that “no child should be left behind” whatever that means”.
    I didn’t figure out what that means.

    Obviously someone who is well off, enjoying the ride and determined to keep status quo.

  42. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Go for it Crusoe…am so tired of explaining things to people, that’s why i address many as Slaves, they don’t have the intellectual capacity to understand anything else and accept what they have as the best they can ever be….waste of oxygen….the island and too m any of the people are hopelessly lost in the 18th century…another crime of the century, this time psychological and voluntary.

    “Ninety percent of those who ‘excel academically’ had private lesson upon private lesson, often from the same teachers out of school and could afford it.

    Only a few excelled without those lessons. A VERY few. Most had lessons up the wazoo, to get there.

    The ones who get to A Level are those who got there in spite of the system. Yes, there are good teachers, bless them.”

    Those who appear in the papers in August, ninety percent can thank their private tutors for that success. And yes, their own hard work”

    some leave with 5 and 6 CXCs or whatever they call them these days and still GET NOWHERE…

    if you don’t spend that money, results could be very dismal.

  43. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    @ Dompey

    Your original argument was about America winning the most Nobel Peace Prizes.

    Now you’ve gone on to argue about the USA has the top universities in the world.

    TWO DIFFERENT ARGUMENTS.

    Unless you’re attempting to convince us attending Harvard is a pathway to winning a Nobel prize.

  44. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    Thinking of 3 Barbajan scholars who used to show off on BU like mad before they thankfully stopped posting, it seems the Barbados schooling system is all about one upmanship for borrowed stolen authority

  45. David Avatar
    David

    @TheO

    This is where the discussion should be pointed instead of the tired narratives.

  46. Critical Analyzer Avatar
    Critical Analyzer

    @Miller May 5, 2021 3:39 PM

    Never intended to argue that “tertiary education” was NOT a necessity.

    Neither did I intend to argue for or against tertiary education. However, BSc degrees is over qualification for most entry to mid level jobs in most fields where CXC and associate level qualifications would suffice.

    A simple new funding model is required to redirect those tertiary education funds to primary and secondary schools those funds can do much more to strengthen more student’s foundation increasing the numbers with CXC.

    Government funding all tertiary education from Associate Degree to PHd level with the student repaying the government back for all incurred degree costs on program completion allows every child, from the poorest to the richest, the opportunity to pursue whichever degree they want.

    Knowing they must repay the money will ensure they wisely select their course direction as they will be ultimately paying for it in the end.

  47. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    “The Ministry of Education is set to launch a coding and robotics programme from September in all schools. Minister Santia Bradshaw made the announcement during a press conference at the ministry’s Constitution Road, St Michael headquarters.”

    They DO NOTHING to advance the lives of Africans, especially the young, on the island. unless exposed….then they run out with big plans that more often than not, go nowhere.

    If Piece was around he would tell ya all about their elaborate educational schemes over the decades that could never get off the ground, and the society sunk right back into the slave/slave master theme that they are comfortable keeping in the population’s lives…

    they had at least 13 YEARS to launch such a program, everyone else is way ahead, some are over 2 decades ahead…these are trying to play catch up, by then everyone else would have moved on to something even more advanced and they will still be in the back, with the go nowhere mentality…they believe when they act STUBBORN to remove the dirty, stagnant system out of weary lives, they are doing something to bloggers…don’t care if they ever do, more ammunition to expose them with..

  48. David Avatar
    David

    This is good news.

    Robotics & Coding Schools’ Programme By September

    by Nya Phillips | May 5, 2021 | Top Stories

    https://cdn.gisbarbados.gov.bb/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/05164025/Santia-Bradshaw-robotic-kit-demonstration-773×1024.jpg
    Minister of Education, Santia Bradshaw (left), operates a teleoperated robot while Principal (ag) at the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College, Dr. Ramona Archer-Bradshaw (centre) and Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Senator Dr. Romel Springer (right) and other Ministry look on. (C. Pitt/BGIS)

    Minister of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, Santia Bradshaw, has announced her Ministry will be introducing a robotics and coding programme within schools at the start of the upcoming academic year.

    She made the announcement at a press briefing to mark the arrival of the first set of robotics kits to be used in this programme. It was held this morning at her Ministry’s office at Elsie Payne Complex, Constitution Road, St. Michael.

    Minister Bradshaw said it was part of Government’s thrust to reform the education system into one that provides children with the foundation to better function in a technology-driven world.

    “Why robotics? The world as we know it is changing…. According to the 2016 Future of Jobs Report by the World Economic Forum, approximately 65 per cent of who enter school in that year will work in jobs which do not currently exist. These jobs will be based on and enhanced by the use of technology.

    “If our students are to be competent and assist Barbados in regaining a sustainable economic development path, it is imperative that the education system prepare them to not only manipulate and utilise the technology, but more importantly, participate in its development.”

    The Education Minister stated that Government believes students would greatly benefit from this programme, in that robotics and coding help to improve their vision of science, mathematics and engineering, problem-solving skills, and promote innovation, among other things.

    Ms. Bradshaw said the programme “will be implemented by formalising timetable contact hours for [the] early developmental stage and through extra-curricular clubs”, as a means of ensuring that all children have access to the lessons.

    She revealed that the Ministry was in “the final stages” of developing a draft curriculum for students aged seven to 14 in this subject area. However, she noted they were still welcoming stakeholder input, including that of parents and students.

    “We’re also aligning the upper secondary curriculum with the national objectives, and discussions are presently ongoing with CXC, and TVET … to identify and procure any additional resources at the schools to support the curriculum,” the Minister added.

    With regard to the 1,128 robotics kits procured, Ms. Bradshaw explained that they were “initially part of a pilot project, which was led by the Ministry of Education, in conjunction with the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College, which would have resulted in over 140 teachers being trained, and 2,602 students, across 50 schools at the nursery, primary and secondary levels, participating in robotics training at their respective schools”.

    The Education Minister continued: “With additional resources becoming available at the end of the last financial year at the end of March, the Cabinet of Barbados agreed to the procurement of an additional 4,785 kits, and a further allocation of BDS$1.6 million. This would allow to now increase the number of students and teachers who could participate in the programme for the start of the September term, which would allow us to have 16, 508 students being able to have access to these kits.

    “The total investment in this project to date is BDS$2.7 million, and Government remains committed, funds permitting, to the expansion of the programme to all schools over the course of the next few months.”

    nya.phillips@barbados.gov.bb

    Source: BGIS

  49. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    Each One Teach One
    Critical Analyzer obviously never went to University to study Analysis so his moniker is a misnomer and his musings are a red herring. Education is for everybody which means that emphasis should not be only about the top stream but addressing the bottom stream who are behind and lose attention and needed targeted 1-1 explanation to catch up as knowledge is accumulative and understanding the simple concepts are needed to proceed to the more difficult and complex subject matters. Making students pay for University is a no no as they will not bother going to college to pay for higher education to rack up debt when thy could be working and making money and building up experience instead. The most intelligent people I know have common sense and reasoning not qualifications in abstract theory.

    Everybody Needs A Proper Education, Mikey Dread

  50. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    (Black) Children need physical musical dance and creative exercise and stimulation as well as bookwork

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