est. 2007

Barbados Underground

Bringing News and Opinions to the People

Ode to Education

Submitted by Paula Sealy It looks like a turnstileCould be real usefulIn the admin sectionDown by the river. All the Payne may cause ElsieTo turn in her grave.Education can ‘give’ you a ComplexPeople are now saying. Rudder-less and Price-yThere is also less Joy.Never mind this wasTo be the Best of times. The Shepherd is quietAnd…

Submitted by Paula Sealy

It looks like a turnstile
Could be real useful
In the admin section
Down by the river.

All the Payne may cause Elsie
To turn in her grave.
Education can ‘give’ you a Complex
People are now saying.

Rudder-less and Price-y
There is also less Joy.
Never mind this was
To be the Best of times.

The Shepherd is quiet
And the Redman is silent.
The unions are mute
And teachers cuffuffled.

Let Dr. Archer know
As she comes to the crease
That doctorates don’t save anybody
From becoming M.I.A.

Dr. Morris take fresh guard.
Bobby can no longer
Pull rank and call a big shot.
All it is now is stress and more pressure.

Whether or not Colin
Takes over the wheel
He could pray to St. Stephen
The reins could still go to Dr. Browne

Principals Parris and Saul are retired,
Looking at the flames being fanned.
After extinguishing the fire of 2011,
In 2021, it is all burning down.

43 responses to “Ode to Education”

  1. David Avatar
    David

    BUT wants clarity on education chief

    President of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT), Pedro Shepherd, is calling for clarity from Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw on how the new Chief Education Officer has been selected.
    The Sunday Sun has received reports, which are still to be officially confirmed by the ministry, that deputy principal of Erdiston Teachers’ Training College, Dr Ramona Bradshaw, will be taking up the post in which Joy Adamson has been acting for more than two years.
    Neither the minister nor Adamson could be reached for comment, and it is not yet clear if the tenure of the new Chief Education Officer will be on a contract basis.
    However, Shepherd said it was important that the ministry cleared the air on how the selection process was undertaken as it raised several questions. He added that people within the teaching service saw the post as the pinnacle so the criteria must be transparent.
    “I think clarity is urgently needed because the teachers of Barbados deserve to know what the rules are and the same goes for those who applied for the position. I also believe that the person who was holding the office for about two years and nine months also deserves to know.”
    Regrading process
    The BUT president said he had serious concerns about the regrading process within the teaching service, arguing that experience now seemed to be undervalued. He said that this was likely to be a disincentive for people to remain in the teaching service for a long time.
    “People in the teaching service would have been seeing this position as an elevation and this is something that we have to look at because we have a system now where people are going into positions based on interviews and academic qualifications.
    “These persons often do not get the kind of respect that their office carries and this is something that we have to look at,” said Shepherd, adding this was posing serious
    challenges throughout the Public Service.
    “We have to really look seriously at whether we will continue with the interview process and overlook people who are senior because I don’t think that there is anything that could beat experience, not even degrees and master’s degrees.
    “The challenge that we have in education is that the recent regrading now states that you must have a master’s degree to be a principal and it does not matter which discipline.
    “So a person with a master’s degree in civil engineering and little teaching experience qualifies to be a principal ahead of a teacher with a first degree in education and many years of experience.” (CLM)

    Source: Nation

  2. David Avatar
    David

    Too much partisan politics. We have a history of appointing heads of the BUT to senior positions at the ministry. Breaking the practice is Pedro Shepherd, he should ask himself why.The practice of not appointing the best persons to the job is coming back to bite the country given the importance of a relevant/fit for purpose education system. Some have been asking for example if a chief education officer grounded in primary school experience possess the holistic experience to guide education policy. The get in a room and through non-scientific methods select senior teachers.

  3. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    Self Healing = Self Love
    After a couple of generations of self rule Barbados has gone complacent and stale and needs to shake it up to wake it up again.
    Financial Investment Offshore Banking and Accounting services has peaked with statutory income reporting and client privilege rights of non-disclosure coming to an end means collateral wealth management in Banking will migrate.
    Barbados needs to practise improvement on a daily basis taking small steps to become stronger which like physical exercise is a lifestyle change not a quick pill as remedy for sudden gain and requires regular consistent effort.
    The people are the top in the A-Team are not world class olympian champions but are work horses in a career of mediocrity.

  4. David Avatar
    David

    Interesting to observe our willingness to march to support different causes and the one thing that will determine our ‘success’ as a people- education, we ignore.

  5. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    So….our educational system is mired in partisan politics!

    And we are blaming the children for the results?

  6. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    For donkey years I have said on BU and elsewhere that the Ministry of Education is a political cesspool. We have had no competent Minister of Education for decades. I believe that since Dame Billie Miller none has been impressive and that includes the present PM., who once held the portfolio.
    The BLPDLP administrations blame : parents, teachers and students got the morass that now envelops education but it’s the odour of the cesspool that is now strangling us.
    Ignorant, backward partisan politics destroying the country. All sectors are infected but we appear to like it so.

  7. David Avatar
    David

    @William

    What good can come from a cesspool?

  8. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    “I believe that since Dame Billie Miller none has been impressive and that includes the present PM.”

    you mean that embarrassment to our ancestors that stated PUBLICLY, Bajans were, i suppose she also meant.STILL ARE the “best slaves”..yeah, impressive to slave masters…should revise that to say that NONE have ever done right by the Black African population…they would not know how to begin, definitely not in the 21st century, all they are good for right now is showing the world how they have WASTED 55 years marinating on the wrong side of history…and it’s about to bite..

  9. GP Avatar
    GP

    NO DDD
    our educational system is mired in partisan politics AND THE CHILDREN ARE SUFFERING AS A RESULT.

    also THE “”FREE” EDUCATION SOME OF US RECIEVED IN THE 60 “S WAS SQUANDERED BECAUSE THE RECIPIENTS DID NOT, OR WERE NOT ALLOWED TO CHART THE COURSE OF MANY THINGS ON THE ISLAND.

    I THANK GOD THAT I WAS ABLE TO CONVINCE VICTOR JOHNSON TO CONVINCE CABINET IN 1985 THAT WE SHOULD RUN OUR NHS, NOT LIKE THE ONE IN THE UK, BUT FROM A NUMBER OF POLYCLINICS STRATEGICALLY PLACED BASED ON THE INTERSECTION OF OUR HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. IT WAS NOT IMPLIMENTED PERFECTLY, BUT IT HAS WORKED WELL TO SOME EXTENT. IT WAS AN IMPROVEMENT ON WHAT WE HAD BEFORE, BUT IT CAN BE IMPROVED

    our “”FREE” EDUCATION HAS LARGELY BEEN SQUANDERED AND WILL CONTINUE SO TO BE, BECAUSE OUR LEADERS DO NOT LISTEN TO MEN AND WOMEN WHOM THE POPULACE HAS PAID TO EDUCATE…….MEN LIKE GRENVILLE IN THE AREA OF HIS EXPERTISE, TO NAME ONE. BUT THERE ARE NO DOUBT MANY OTHERS WHO NEED ONLY TO HAVE ONE OF THEIR IDEAS ACKNOWLEDGED AND IMPLEMENTED. JUST ONE.

    THEY ARE MEN AND WOMEN, WHO DO NOT WANT TO BE SEEN OR HEARD OR KNOWN, WHO NO DOUBT SEEK BY WORD, OR LETTER OR E MAIL TO EDUCATE THE NATIONAL LEADERS SO CALLED,……..BUT THEY ARE EITHER DEAF OR DUMB (AND I DO NOT MEAN INCAPABLE OF SPEAKING). RATHER THEY ARE BLIND AND LACKING IN PERCEPTION AND THE REQUIRED VISION, FOR IT IS INDEED TRUE “WHERE THERE IS NO VISION THE PEOPLE PERISH.”

  10. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ David Bu

    The old people ,who only had a 7th Standard Education ,always reminded their charges that if they yield an inch ,those who follow will take a mile. The process of making these senior appointments did not start with this administration or by this particular appointment. Are we discussing this appointment in an information vacuum? What were the criteria for selection? Was the selection made by the Public Service Commission? If so why are we second guessing them? Just asking for peace of mind.
    @ GP at 9 :28 AM
    I am in agreement that free secondary and tertiary education, provided since 1961, appear not to deliver what they were intended to deliver.The more highly educated the society has become, the more questionable are the decisions made.

  11. GP Avatar
    GP

    IN THE QUALIFICATIONS FOR CHURCH LEADERS IN TITUS, A LEADER IS REQUIRED INTER ALIA TO BE APT OR ABLE TO TEACH, AND TO BE LOVER OR DISCERNER OF GOOD MEN.

    THIS IN MY VIEW, APPLIES TO ALL ASPECTS OF LIFE. JUST AS A CRICKET CAPTAIN SHOULD BE ABLE TO KNOW THAT THE BOWLING OF SOME OF HIS BATSMEN, THAT HE WITNESSED IN THE NETS, MIGHT BE USEFUL IN A GAME, AND WHICH BOWLERS WILL BE MOST EFFECTIVE ACCORDING TO PARTICULAR PREVAILING CONDITIONS,, NATIONAL LEADERS SHOULD DISCERN WHICH MEMBERS OF THE COUNTRY CAN CONTRIBUTE MEANINGFUL, FRUITFUL IDEAS, AND SEEK THEM OUT SO THAT THEY CAN PARTICIPATE.

    I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT THERE ARE BAJANS, BOTH AT HOME AND ABROAD, WHO CAN TURN THE TIDE, AND CAUSE A FLOOD, BUT………………..???

  12. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    William…look at this branded idiocy….outside of tiefing and selling out, this is as creative as the clowns of parliament can get when it relates to Black people..these young people have achieved something or other and the best the backward can come up with, is their names as owners of “piece of a rock”…and the “nelson will not be moved” jackass believes he gave them/accomplished something..and they should feel good too.

    they are some insulting and disrespectful vote begging negros..

    https://www.nationnews.com/2021/08/16/solid-tribute-st-philip-four/

  13. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    WURA
    🎵What did they get?
    A big rock!🎶

  14. Observing Avatar
    Observing

    “Interesting to observe our willingness to march to support different causes and the one thing that will determine our ‘success’ as a people- education, we ignore.

    Amen.

    Politicians do not care about education unless it can launch to another platform.

    Just like 1999 -2000 and onward we will reap what we sow soon.

    Just observing

  15. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    Education is not as GP believes about the exceptional but for everyone including the bottom.

    It needs to be changed so it is not boring but stimulating interesting creative and makes people small and big how to think and not remember what taught like a memory bank

    Teach skills what are current nowadays like listening discussing performing with confidence pushing boundaries

  16. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    GP,

    I suggest that many of us (not the writer) do blame the young people for just about everything.

    But in most cases, one gets from the young people what one puts into them. There will always be outliers, of course.

  17. David Avatar
    David

    Education is not just about formal education, it is also about enabling an ethos in our country that leads to unlocking the most our creativity has to offer.

  18. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    WURA,

    Wynter Crawford, Hilda Skeene etc are all dead people.

  19. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    Near the end Pedro S seem to focus on number of years of teaching.

    Dare I ask .. is the only requirement to be a principal is the number of years of teaching experience?

    Reminds of a guy claiming 15 years of experience and being told “No, you have one year of experience, repeated fifteen times”

    More seriously… Shouldn’t there be an administrative/leadership/advisory component to the qualifications?

    Needless to say, there should be some fixed selection criteria and some transparency to the process

  20. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    Typos Monday

  21. Observing Avatar
    Observing

    “Education is not just about formal education, it is also about enabling an ethos in our country that leads to unlocking the most our creativity has to offer”

    Find me the time, minster, Chief or government that understood and acted on this and I’ll sponsor you a million dollars.

    Just observing

    P.S. I’m here impassioned because of the recent developments. Muh grandchile gotta live through whatever coming next and I ain’t happy.

  22. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    ““Education is not just about formal education, it is also about enabling an ethos in our country that leads to unlocking the most our creativity has to offer”

    “Find me the time, minster, Chief or government that understood and acted on this and I’ll sponsor you a million dollars.”

    Your left brain is logical your right brain is creative

    schooling tends to concentrate on left brain with maths etc

    but you can stimulate the right brain with creative activities

  23. GP Avatar
    GP

    “Education is not just about formal education, it is also about enabling an ethos in our country that leads to unlocking the most our creativity has to offer”

    I WILL GO BACK TO MY THEOLOGY READING
    BILLY GRAHAM HAS WRITTEN A BOOK ABOUT “HINGEMEN”. I READ IT SEVERAL YEARS AGO BUT NEVER BELIEVED THAT A
    HINGEMAN WOULD GET ME INVOLVED IN HELPING AN EVANGELIST IN ZAMBIA AND SOME PASTORS IN KENYA TO EXPAND A PROGRAM IN KENYA FOR WIDOWS. THIS YEAR, ALL VIA EMAIL.

    A HINGEMAN IS ESSENTIALLY SOME ONE WHO IS GENERALLY UNKNOWN BUT WHO HAS ENCOURAGED OR EVEN ORDERED ANOTHER TO DO A GREAT WORK THAT THEY MIGHT NEVER HAVE DONE.

    THATS HOW WE GOT SOME OF THE GREATEST BIBLE PREACHERS LIKE CHARLES SPURGEON IN LONDON ETC
    IN ONE CASE, A SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER WAS ABLE TO PERSUADE ONE OF HIS PUPILS TO BE A PREACHER, RATHER THAN BEING A LAWYER.

    WITH REFERENCE TO DAVIDS POINT, HOW MANY OF US HAS BEEN PERSUADED TO DO ANYTHING BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT BARBADOS NEEDED AS TO DO FOR BARBADOS, OR BECAUSE THEY SOMEHOW THOUGHT WE HAD SOME QUALITY THAT WAS IDEALLY SUITED TO SERVE BARBADOS.

    PLAY IN MOST ANIMALS IS REALLY WHAT WE CALL SCHOOL
    IN PLAY ANIMALS PREPARE FOR, AND PRACTICE THE SKILLS THEY NEED TO BE SUCESSFUL AND SURVIVE IN LIFE.
    FOR MANY HUMANS, SCHOOL WAS PLAY—-WE GOT IT BACKWARDS. WE CERTAINLY HAD NO REAL IDEA WHY WE WERE IN SCHOOL.

    I HAD A SCHOLARSHIP AND WENT TO MEDICAL SCHOOL. I WAS NOT BONDED. AND NO ONE SAID I WAS BEING SENT TO SCHOOL TO SERVE BARBADOS. I HAD NO HINGEMAN

    IN OUR DAY WE LISTENED TO SPARROW AND BELIEVED WE WERE TO LEARN WELL OR ELSE SUFFER PERSONAL HELL LATER IN LIFE.

    HE HAD A WIDE AUDIENCE BUT HE DID NOT SAY LEARN WELL AND THEN SERVE YOUR COUNTRY EVEN IF ONLY IN A SECURE GOVERNMENT JOB

    WE WERE UNFORTUNATELY NOT TAUGHT BY ANY HINGEMAN…..HOW WE SHOULD BE ” enabling an ethos in our country that leads to unlocking the most our creativity has to offer”” PERHAPS IF WE IN THE 60’S HAD SUCH A FOCUS OR PURPOSE DRILLED INTO US LIKE THE REQUIRED AB C, 123 AND DOH RAY, WE MIGHT BE SCALING THE HEIGHTS AND MIGHT HAVE DRAGGED MANY BEHIND US.

    MY BROTHER HAS UNAPOLOGETICALLY TOLD ME…….”IT IS WE SO THAT GOT THIS COUNTY SCREWED UP.”
    PERHAPS BE NEED AN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM WHERE THE TEACHERS ARE ALL PERSUASIVE HINGEMEN.

  24. David Avatar
    David

    This is a good point GP. It has been raised a few times on BU. There is the right- if we can call it that- to afford everyone the opportunity to study subject matter their mind bids them. To be a free spirit in order, to actualize. Then there are the transactional imperatives of the country read economy and the need to grow a knowledge base to meet those imperatives. We have done a poor job in recent years balancing the two.

  25. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Donna…he has no shame, none of the vote beggars do..

    To make it worse, the truth is coming out, even if slowly, but Barbados must be unique and keep the same lying system of falsehoods in place..

    https://youtu.be/Xin98aotw98?t=3

  26. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    “P.S. I’m here impassioned because of the recent developments. Muh grandchile gotta live through whatever coming next and I ain’t happy.”

    That’s just it, i refuse to allow a bunch of manufactured negros in a colonial parliament to run the same nasty OPPRESSIVE, RACIST, DISENFRANCHISING CRIMINAL games on my grands and great grands…they all gotta go, they should not even be up in our family’s faces begging for votes, they HAVE NO RIGHT..

    hell will freeze over first before i sit and do nothing to stop those frauds..

  27. Paula Sealy Avatar
    Paula Sealy

    No one should be the president of a union of public officers if they do not know the Public Service Qualifications Order.

    According to the Public Service Qualifications Order the qualifications for the Chief Education Officer are (a) a postgraduate degree, (b) a certificate or a diploma in Education and (c) a certificate or a diploma in Management or Educational Leadership, and not less than ten years’ relevant experience is required.

    Before he said anything, Pedro Shepherd should’ve remembered that he was the president of the BUT when the Fruendel Stuart administration introduced the new Qualifications Order in 2016. He could ask Ronald Jones who was the education minister to refresh his memory during the DLP convention this weekend. As Assistant General Secretary, Shepherd will be there and so should Jones.

    As the head of the union back then you would expect Shepherd to know what the qualifications for teachers and principals in the Order are. Maybe he was busy when the unions were given the draft of the Order before it became the law. They were asked to send in their concerns.

    Maybe Shepherd was too busy completing his first degree at Cave Hill to pay attention to it. But very little was said to the members under his leadership. That was until the Order had a lot of teachers with years far, far out to sea since they couldn’t become principals without a Masters degree. To this day, a lot of experienced teachers with no Masters are annoyed.

    The union can do better.

    That is the same Pedro Shepherd who seconded the no confidence motion Dwayne Goddard had against Sean Spencer last year, That was the same no confidence motion that Goddard smiled and told the Nation was against the leadership.

    Shepherd and Goddard do not know the union’s constitution. That was why the motion was unconstitutional and thrown out.

    Shepherd did not know the meaning of leadership then so he could not correct Goddard. He still doesn’t know. And Goddard is too big to fail.

    Shepherd does not know and he says so a lot. It is time for the members of the union to believe him. Maybe before he leaves teaching to oppose Santia Baradshaw in St. Michael South East.

    I feel for the people in St. Michael South East too because they deserve better representation but Shepherd is a poor alternative.

    It is all about who can talk the most to win the seat.

  28. Dirt Farmer Avatar
    Dirt Farmer

    Really?

    “P.S. I’m here impassioned because of the recent developments. Muh grandchile gotta live through whatever coming next and I ain’t happy.”

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    Next:
    A presidential republic allows its citizens to elect a president to serve as the country’s head of state. However, in a presidential republic, the president also serves as the head of the government, too! This is different from a monarchy, where the king or queen serves as the head of state while a prime minister or president runs the day-to-day operations of the government.

    A congressional system, or single executive system, is a form of government in which a head of government (president) leads an executive branch that is separate from the legislative branch in systems that use separation of powers. This head of government is in most cases also the head of state.
    In presidential countries, the head of government is elected and is not responsible to the legislature, which cannot (usually) in normal circumstances dismiss it. Such dismissal is possible, however, in uncommon cases, often through impeachment.
    The title “president” has persisted from a time when such person personally presided over the governing body, as with the President of the Continental Congress in the early United States, prior to the executive function being split into a separate branch of

    government.
    A presidential system contrasts with a parliamentary system, where the head of government comes to power by gaining the confidence of an elected legislature. There are also hybrid systems such as the semi-presidential system, used in the former Weimar Republic and in France.
    Countries that feature a presidential or semi-presidential system of government are not the exclusive users of the title of president. Heads of state of parliamentary republics, largely ceremonial in most cases, are called presidents. Dictators or leaders of one-party states, whether popularly elected or not, are also often called presidents.
    Presidentialism is the dominant form of government in the mainland Americas, with 19 of its 22 sovereign states being presidential republics, the exceptions being Canada, Belize, and Suriname. It is also prevalent in Central and southern West Africa and in Central Asia. By contrast, there are very few presidential republics in Europe, with Belarus and Cyprus being the only examples. Oceania is the only continent that has no presidential republic.

    Characteristic:
    In a full-fledged presidential system, a politician is chosen directly by the public or indirectly by the winning party to be the head of government. Except for Belarus and Kazakhstan, this head of government is also the head of state, and is therefore called president. The post of prime minister (also called premier) may also exist in a presidential system, but unlike in semi-presidential or parliamentary systems, the prime minister answers to the president and not to the legislature.
    The following characteristics apply generally for the numerous presidential governments across the world:
    • The executive can veto legislative acts and, in turn, a supermajority of lawmakers may override the veto. The veto is generally derived from the British tradition of royal assent in which an act of parliament can only be enacted with the assent of the monarch.
    • The president has a fixed term of office. Elections are held at regular times and cannot be triggered by a vote of confidence or other parliamentary procedures, although in some countries there is an exception which provides for the removal of a president who is found to have broken a law.
    • The executive branch is unipersonal. Members of the cabinet serve at the pleasure of the president and must carry out the policies of the executive and legislative branches.

    Cabinet ministers or executive departmental chiefs are not members of the legislature.[citation needed] However, presidential systems often need legislative approval of executive nominations to the cabinet, judiciary, and various lower governmental posts. A president generally can direct members of the cabinet, military, or any officer or employee of the executive branch, but cannot direct or dismiss judges.
    • The president can often pardon or commute sentences of convicted criminals.

    Subnational governments, usually states, may be structured as presidential systems. All of the state governments in the United States use the presidential system, even though this is not constitutionally required. On a local level, many cities use council-manager government, which is equivalent to a parliamentary system, although the post of a city manager is normally a non-political position. Some countries without a presidential system at the national level use a form of this system at a subnational or local level. One example is Japan, where the national government uses the parliamentary system, but the prefectural and municipal governments have governors and mayors elected independently from local assemblies and councils.

    Supporters generally claim four basic advantages for presidential systems:
    • Direct elections — in a presidential system, the president is often elected directly by the people. This makes the president’s power more legitimate than that of a leader appointed indirectly. However, this is not a necessary feature of a presidential system. Some presidential states have an indirectly elected head of state.
    • Separation of powers — a presidential system establishes the presidency and the legislature as two parallel structures. This allows each structure to monitor and check the other, preventing abuses of power.
    • Speed and decisiveness — A president with strong powers can usually enact changes quickly. However, the separation of powers can also slow the system down.
    • Stability — a president, by virtue of a fixed term, may provide more stability than a prime minister, who can be dismissed at any time.

    In most presidential systems, the president is elected by popular vote, although some such as the United States use an electoral college or some other method.[1] By this method, the president receives a personal mandate to lead the country, whereas in a parliamentary system a candidate might only receive a personal mandate to represent a constituency. That means a president can only be elected independently of the legislative branch.

    Separation of powers:
    A presidential system’s separation of the executive from the legislature is sometimes held up as an advantage, in that each branch may scrutinize the actions of the other. In a parliamentary system, he executive is drawn from the legislature, making criticism of one by the other considerably less likely. A formal condemnation of the executive by the legislature is often considered a vote of no confidence. According to supporters of the presidential system, the lack of checks and balances means that misconduct by a prime minister may never be discovered.

    Other supporters of presidential systems sometimes argue in the exact opposite direction, however, saying that presidential systems can slow decision-making to beneficial ends. Divided government, where the presidency and the legislature are controlled by different parties, is said to restrain the excesses of both the coalition and opposition, and guarantee cross-partisan input into legislation. In the United States, Republican Congressman Bill Frenzel wrote in 1995:
    “There are some of us who think gridlock is the best thing since indoor plumbing. Gridlock is the natural gift the Framers of the Constitution gave us so that the country would not be subjected to policy swings resulting from the whimsy of the public. And the competition—whether multi-branch, multi-level, or multi-house—is important to those checks and balances and to our ongoing kind of centrist government. Thank heaven we do not have a government that nationalizes one year and privatizes next year, and so on ad infinitum”. (Checks and Balances,

  29. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    ” says some Barbadians, even those with university degrees, are having literacy challenges affecting their ability to complete online training courses.”

    https://www.nationnews.com/2021/08/17/leacock-sees-literacy-challenges/

  30. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet


    What We Are Taught, Mojiba Ase
    11:11 Reflekshon of Count Ossie

  31. Paula Sealy Avatar
    Paula Sealy

    Appointment Of New Chief Education Officer

    BY BGIS | AUG 17, 2021 

    A new Chief Education Officer has been appointed to the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training. She is Dr. Ramona Archer- Bradshaw, who holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in Education with High Commendation from the University of the West Indies.

    Dr. Archer-Bradshaw will begin her tenure tomorrow, Wednesday, August 18. She is on contract for three years.

    She is also the recipient of a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Sector Management with Distinction and graduated as valedictorian.  She was the most outstanding student within her programme and most outstanding student overall on completion of her Post Graduate Diploma in Education with Double Distinction at Erdiston Teachers’ Training College.

    Dr. Archer-Bradshaw has over 20 years of teaching experience and is passionate about education.  To this end, she has publications in elite (Tier 1) international educational journals in the area of teacher quality and scientific literacy.

    She continues to conduct research, publish and present internationally, regionally and locally.

    To date, Dr. Archer-Bradshaw has presented several papers on education and has represented Barbados at conferences of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), which is the largest American interdisciplinary research association devoted to the scientific study of education and learning.  She attends conferences worldwide and has presented erudite papers in Canada, Texas, Washington D.C. and Chicago.

    She was also the Secretary/Treasurer for the Caribbean and African Studies in Education Special Interest Group of the AERA, a position that she held for two consecutive terms.  In addition to presentations made within the US and Canada, Dr. Archer-Bradshaw has presented papers at the UWI Biennial Conference and the Higher Education Development Unit’s International Conference on Higher Education.    

    Additionally, she was nominated to represent Barbados at the UNESCO Sandwatch Adapting to Climate Change and Educating for Sustainable Development Conference in Trinidad and Tobago in 2017, and the China-CELAC Conference on Science and Technology in Ecuador in 2015.

    In addition to her scholarly work, Dr. Archer-Bradshaw has spent many years honing her craft as a teacher and educational leader.  She has spent over a decade cultivating her practice in the classroom as a teacher of Physics at the secondary level and has trained teachers, and performed numerous teacher observations across nursery, primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in her roles as Tutor, Senior Tutor, Deputy Principal and Acting Principal of Erdiston Teachers’ Training College.

    While at the College, she has been a member of several committees, including the Strategic Planning Committee and the Steering Committee for the Registration/Accreditation Process.  She also chaired the Academic Board at the College and has coordinated programmes and various workshops for teachers and educational leaders.

    During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Archer-Bradshaw selected and chaired the committee responsible for transitioning from face-to-face to remote teaching and learning at the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College.  With the assistance of her team, she was able to facilitate a seamless transition across modalities so that teaching and learning could continue unhampered at the College.  Moreover, in her role as Acting Principal, she has been able to secure grant funding for the College to assist with its operations and has explored and fortified local, regional and overseas linkages to leverage the College and its offerings.

    Dr. Ramona Archer-Bradshaw has a strong interest in science and technology and has sat on the planning committee of the Caribbean Science Foundation for its first Junior Robotics Camp in 2015.  Having worked closely with Professor Cardinal Ward, she is the champion for Coding and Robotics implementation in schools in Barbados and, with the assistance of Mrs. Catherine Gibson at Erdiston Teachers’ Training College, has introduced SCRATCH programming and educational robotics to over 700 teachers and educational leaders.  

    She continues to be a member of the American Education Research Association, a volunteer for the Caribbean Science Foundation and a reviewer for regional and high profile international peer-reviewed journals.        

    Dr. Archer-Bradshaw is also a wife and mother, and enjoys swimming, playing steel pan, billiards and singing karaoke. Her philosophy is that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step (Lao Tzu, n.d).

    METV

    (https://gisbarbados.gov.bb/blog/appointment-of-new-chief-education-officer/)

  32. David Avatar
    David

    Her academic qualifications are impressive.

  33. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Her energy also seems to be impressive. She reminds me of the Chief Agricultural Officer- young, female, smart and experienced.

    I see a pattern here.

    Maybe there is hope.

  34. GP Avatar
    GP

    David August 16, 2021 2:41 PM

    what i was saying was Sparrow advised learned well and I still saw real hell, because I was sincerely interested in working in the public sector, but I only got a slurry of acting jobs, when the men who were appointed went on holiday. Often they did not turn up. I am not complaining because God looked after me, and still does.

    WHAT I AM SAYING TOO IS THAT I WENT TO SCHOOL FOR ME…………NOT FOR BARBADOS
    NO ONE TOLD ME I HAD TO GO AND LEARN WELL AT SCHOOL TO ONE DAY SERVE BARBADOS
    NO ONE STRESSED THAT YOUR WORK WAS ON BEHALF OF BARBADOS, AND THAT ONE CAN INDEED SERVE BOTH THEMSELVES AND BARBADOS TOGETHER

    MAYBE THIS MUST BE TAUGHT FROM PRIMAY SCHOOL LEVEL
    IS THAT NOT WHY IN SPORT AND OTHER AREAS SOME NATIONS EXCEL? WE DONT NEED TO BRAINWASH CHILDREN WITH THIS IN VIEW.
    IT MIGHT BE BETTER TO TEACH SUCH FROM PRIMARY SCHOOL LEVEL THAN TO TEACH THEM TO WUK UP FOR NIFCA

    AS TO THIS NEW LADY IN EDUCATION ……I WISH HER WELL
    I HOPE SHE WILL HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO STAND UP TO INFERIOR SUOERIORS, INFERIOR THINKERS AND WORKERS AROUND HER AND THE SEVERAL OF THESE ILKS.
    IT IS NOT EASY TO BE THUS WELL QUALIFIED AND EXPERIENCED TO COME TO DEAL WITH MORONS< WHO DONT THINK BECAUSE THEY ARE INCAPABLE OF DOING SO, AND WHO CAN MARGINALIZE YOU, AND MAKE YOU IMPOTENT IN THE WORKPLACE.
    1
    I REMEMBER WELL IN 81 at the little Heath Center as it was then at Warrens. I was beginning as Assistant Medical Officer of Health at Warrens. I came to work one morning, and the nurse in charge WHOSE NAME IT IS BY WHICH THAT POLYCLINIC SHOULD NOW BE CALLED, came to me almost in tears, to tell me that they had replaced our maid.

    Now this so called maid, used to do her maid work, efficiently and well, had an interest in the clinic and helped to pick out notes and any and everything that was needed in that small Health Center. I picked up the phone called the MOH and told the person responsible DO YOU KNOW THAT THIS WOMAN IS MUCH MORE THAN A MAID HERE? HE QUICKLY REBUKED ME BY SAYING DONT YOU KNOW THAT ALL CIVIL SERVANTS AT SUBJECT TO TRANSFER.

    OUR MAID WAS REPLACED BY A SLOB WHO LIVED NEARBY,AND WHO DID NOT EVEN DO HER WORK WELL
    OUR ORIGINAL MAID DEPARTED AND WENT DOWN THE ROAD AND RAN A GP’s OFFICE USING EXERCISE BOOKS TO KEEP THE NOTES IN A MOST INGENIOUS WAY

  35. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    David,

    African Studies may be on the horizon.

  36. TLSN Avatar
    TLSN

    What ever happened to Jeff Broomes? I can remember about three years ago (?) he was the presenter of a radio show. It was a pity that he was considered too controversial by his vision less peers.
    I hope our Dr. Ramona Archer- Bradshaw will cast her eyes on the education system on the African continent. They may have limited resources however they are churning out successful pupils who are hungry to learn.
    I would ask her to investigate the revolutionary approach to schooling in Kenya. MPESA has opened a school which is available to children based on their abilities. It’s a game changer and far ahead of anything that we have throughout the entire Caribbean.

    https://mpesafoundationacademy.ac.ke/

  37. David Avatar
    David

    @Donna

    We are suffering an identity crisis. We lay claim the the label we are Eurocentric but what does it mean?

    @GP

    Some of us are self motivated and fortunate to be influenced by the right people and events, others are not so fortunate. We have to be careful wholesaling personal experiences to effectively treat to current challenges.

  38. GP Avatar
    GP

    RE Some of us are self motivated and fortunate to be influenced by the right people and events, others are not so fortunate.

    MAN WHY DO YOU SEEK TO BE ALWAYS ARGUMENTATIVE SIR.
    MOST ARE NOT SO FORTUNATE AND END UP ON DRUGS AND KILLING THEIR PEERS

    SELF MOTIVATION HELPED ME TO GET TO, AND THROUGH MED SCHOOL, AND TO BOLDLY APPROACH PM ADAMS AND TELL HIM HIS VIEW OF A UK TYPE NHS FOR BARBADOS WAS WRONG, AND THERE WAS NO NEED FOR GUVMENT AND BAMP TO BE FIGHTING, AS THEY WERE THEN ABOUT THE PROPOSALS FOR A NHS

    I READ ABOUT HIS IDEAS IN THE NATION WHILE A SECOND YEAR STUDENT AND SELF MOTIVATION SPURRED ME TO RESEARCH THE SYSTEMS OF ALL THE EUROPEAN COUNTRIES AT THE TIME. WHEN I OPINED I WAS TALKING SENSE. THEY PRACTICE MY IDEAS IN ST LUCIA EVEN BETTER THAN WE DO AT THE CLINIC I ATTENDED. I DO NOT KNOW HOW MANY OTHER CLINICS THEY HAVE..

    SELF MOTIVATION HELPED ME TO SIT VICTOR JOHNSON DOWN IN THE ER AT ST JOSEPH WHEN HE CAME WITH HIS WIFE SOME TIME AFTER ADAMS DEATH AND TOLD HIM WHAT OUGHT TO BE DONE

    SELF MOTIVATION TAUGHT ME HOW TO SERVE WHEN I DID THE LITTLE ACTING HERE A ND THE LITTLE ACTING THERE IN JOBS THAT WERE GIVEN TO NON NATIONALS, EVEN THOUGH I HAD NO ONE TO MOTIVATE ME, AND EVEN THOUGH NO ONE TAUGHT ME FROM CHILDHOOD AS THE ASIANS DO OR AS THE JEWS WERE TAUGHT TO LEARN THE TORA TO BE MOTIVATED FOR NATION AS THOSE FOLK DO.

    We have to be careful wholesaling personal experiences to effectively treat to current challenges.
    NO PERSONAL EXPERIENCES ARE ALWAYS IMPORTANT FOR LEARNING WHERE WE HAVE GONE WRONG IN THE PAST AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES ARE ALWAYS IMPORTANT FOR LEARNING HOW TO IMPROVE FOR THE FUTURE

    THAT IS WHY ALSO WE MUST PRAISE OUR GREAT AND FAMOUS MEN ETC
    THERE IS METHOD IN WHAT YOU THINK IS MY APPARENT MADNESS
    I DO NOT TEACH NOR HAVE I LEARNED IN A VACCUUM

    ONCE WHEN I POINTED OUT CERTAIN THINGS TO THE LATE HARCOURT LEWIS HE SAID THESE ARE THE VERY THINGS THAT ARE DESTROYING THE WHOLE FABRIC OF THE CIVIL SERVICE

    IF WE WANT YOUNG FOLK TO THINK NATIONALISTICALLY WE OUGHT TO MOTIVATE THEM TO DO SO FROM DAY ONE OR TRY TO DO SO

  39. Paula Sealy Avatar
    Paula Sealy

    @Donna

    There is a clear pattern. Apart from women being in top positions a lot of these jobs have owners who do not apply sometimes.

  40. David Avatar
    David

    New Chief Education Officer outlines vision
    By Gercine Carter gercinecarter@nationnews.com
    Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw took over the reins as Barbados’ Chief Education Officer last week, aiming to “chart a path for education that ensures that it is meaningful and relevant”.
    The new chief, who is in her 40s, brings to the job 20 years of experience in teaching both students and teachers. She indicated to the Sunday Sun that during the three-year tenure for which she has been appointed, her prime focus will be to “always ensure that our children and our adults within the education system receive quality education and that the process is equitable and that we are able to help them to realise their true potential”.
    Her background in the education process positions her well for the undertaking, though she pointed out “initially I did not have teaching on the cards as a profession. I wanted to be a chemical engineer.
    She obtained a Bachelor of Science in chemistry and physics as her first degree, graduating from The UWI Cave Hill Campus with Upper Second Class Honours.
    The Alexandra School alumnus explained it was the welcoming remarks from a fifth form student she met in the lobby on the first day of her teaching assignment at Combermere back in 2 000, that swayed her towards teaching instead.
    Unforgettable
    “I will never forget that . . . From there I enjoyed my time at the Combermere School. I was able to teach those children and bring the subject of physics alive for my children, because the basis of my teaching was making the subject fun and making the subject relevant.”
    In 2005 she pursued the post graduate diploma in education at Erdiston Teachers’ Training College “because I wanted to better my craft”, graduating as the valedictorian, the most outstanding student overall across all of the programmes offered at the college and also the most outstanding student in her specific programme. She went on to study for a Master’s in education which she upgraded after just one year to study for the Doctor of Philosophy in education.
    “Just as much as I loved teaching in the class room at the secondary level, I enjoyed teaching teachers,” Archer-Bradshaw said about her subsequent stints as tutor, senior tutor, deputy principal and acting principal at Erdiston Teachers’ Training College.
    Students at centre
    “For me it is always about putting the students at the centre.” The consummate teacher also advised: “We must be very careful that the type of education that we facilitate or deliver is not one that prepares our students for yesterday. We have to prepare our students for tomorrow. We always have to be looking to see what kind of student we want to produce.
    “We have to be progressive in our thinking, to move our students from being consumers of information to having the confidence now to be producers. That is one of the things that we really have to look at.”
    Archer-Bradshaw is firm in her belief that children must be taught to “develop that confidence in who they are in terms of being problem-solvers; being critical thinkers and understanding that they have a place in this world and they can be heard.”
    She said: “That is the direction in which we must move if we want to ensure that we have citizens a couple years from now who can socially and economically move Barbados forward.”
    For some people, this may appear to be a tall order. To the education chief, it can be achieved through consultation with and seeking buy-in from her entire team who she acknowledges is a critical plank in any future plan devised for education.
    “I believe that communication is extremely important,” she said while commending the teachers and the educational leaders within the system who “have done a commendable job”.
    Just a few days on the job, Archer-Bradshaw has set as her first order of business, getting “an understanding of where the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training is; its position with regard to education in Barbados. I want to ensure that I understand the issues that we are facing within the ministry, so that we can go in and
    make the relevant changes”.
    “Moving forward I intend to ensure that communication is always there with the teachers, the educational leaders, the unions, so that there is transparency; so that we all know where we have to go, because the job of education reform or transformation cannot be done by the Chief Education Officer alone. We need to have all hands on deck,” the chief added.
    She identified technical and vocational education as “something that I really would like to see more of within our system”, while observing that: “There is a lot of focus on the academics and ensuring that our children can pass exams but we need to recognise that not every child is able to write exams.
    “We have to make sure that we cater to those children who are very good with their hands too . . . I want to make sure that these children are recognised within the education system and I am going to engage various stakeholders who know about ‘tech-voc’ to see what we can do within our system to ensure that we cater to those children.”
    In charting a new path for education, Archer-Bradshaw said she was mindful of some concerns that old, tested and proven methods of education were being discarded.
    But she pointed out: “We are not preparing children for the past, we are preparing them for the future. We must be able to evaluate to determine whether the tried and tested methods of the past are still relevant for the present and for the future. If they are not, they should be thrown out.”
    Teaching of values and the “development of positive attitudes” as part of the curriculum from the primary school level and up, is another educational feature on which Archer-Bradshaw is keen.
    The mother of two confessed to having had “humble beginnings” and said her own experience of having received sound religious guidance from her infant days at St Stephen’s Primary School had served to inform and provide a grounding for the level

    Source: Nation

  41. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    Raising an indigo child who may have learning difficulties is more spiritually rewarding as they are destined to create change in an upgraded blueprint of humanity and are children who are believed to possess special, unusual, and sometimes supernatural traits or abilities.

  42. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Not a thing wrong with hiring young women with the relevant experience, qualifications, energy, drive and who are not just biding time until retirement.

    We need younger people if we are expecting significant change. These days women are outstripping men in drive. We always did in energy and multitasking skills.

  43. GP Avatar
    GP

    THIS IS FOR VINCENT CODRINGTON
    YOU WILL APPRECIATE THIS
    A BLACK MASS CHOIR WITH ORCHESTRA
    REMINDS ME OF 3 AND 5 CHOIR SINGING IN THE ANGLICAN CHURCH BACK I SIXTIES IN BIM

Leave a Reply to Paula SealyCancel reply

Trending

Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading