I believe that it is time to speak out on certain matters. It may take me more than one column to say these things but I am not committing to having a page or a slot. Just for background information for those who may not know, I recently retired from the teaching service at the level of Deputy Principal, after
Read moreSubmitted by Bush Tea One thing about our approach to our various challenges is our consistency. Teenage sex has been an open secret in ALL our schools now for years, but a newspaper decides to publish living proof and all hell breaks out..resulting in big shots at the newspaper being charged for speaking and publishing the ACTUAL TRUTH. Drivers have
Read moreSubmitted by Neil Watchman In December last year, it was rumoured that the Principal of the BCC, Dr. Gladstone (Gallstone) Best had decided to abolish the general staff meeting held on the first day of semester and instead, hold individual meetings with the various Divisions. That was no rumour; to date the Principal has held surreptitious meetings with two such
Read moreSubmitted Neil Watchman There is growing concern among staff at the Barbados Community College where the Board or more accurately, the Chairman, seems to have developed a tight stranglehold on the institution. Staff cannot recall there ever being such a high level of politicization at the institution until the advent of Mr. Stephen Broome who served first as Deputy Chairman
Read moreSubmitted by The Mahogany Coconut Think Tank and Watchdog Group The Mahogany Coconut Group (MCG) is concerned that Barbadian school children, can go to the Ministry of Education and have a legitimate punishment enforced by their school’s principal, overturned by a civil servant! Such a travesty occurred recently, when a group of school children turned up at the Ministry of
Read moreSubmitted by Anthony Davis “The Freundel Stuart administration says it is sticking to its guns to make Barbadian students at the University of the West Indies start pulling their pockets for tuition fees from next year even though welcoming a new private sector fund to bail out those who cannot afford to pay…The firm position was taken today by Minister
Read moreSubmitted by Pachamama As we approach the season before the silly season we can expect the regular public diatribes from officialdom as they seek to immortalize a constructed past and present an unmeasured guidance for their fairy tale visions of the future. The hard truth has been, is and will be that Barbados since 1627 has never been an independent
Read moreBarbadians have proven once again that we live in a society where the vast majority of us prefer to bury our heads in the sand. The furore, created by the publication of a story about two school children having sex at school, has given me the impression that too many people preferred not to find out about this in a
Read moreComing in the wake of the classroom sex video BU is looking into another matter at Princess Margaret School. It appears a teacher was beaten by a school boy and fainted from the experience. What is alarming is that other teachers who were present were scared shitless to offer assistance to a fallen comrade. It is not surprising we are
Read moreIntroduction: The political and economic failure of Barbados is like a slow motion car crash which onlookers are powerless to do anything about. As we look on, we can see the economy heading for a reinforced wall like a speeding, driverless car; we observe our leading institutions collapsing like a pack of over-used cards, while the high priests and priestesses
Read moreSubmitted by Guild Watchdog While some University Students are worrying about the Governments new policy forcing them to pay tuition fees at The University of the West Indies. It was chaos and turmoil at The Roy Marshall Teaching Complex at The University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus on Thursday night; for the convening of a Guild Council Meeting
Read moreSubmitted by Politically Correct (to alert the President of the Guild of this vital information) This letter is not to slander persons in the Ministry but merely to assist the Guild in fighting the sudden increase in fees for Barbadian students. I will explain how to address this legally below from paragraph 2. The Ministry of Education, Science Technology and
Read moreSubmitted by Looking Glass We are about the only country in the world where Tertiary Education is free and the cost to the taxpayer is truly excessive not only in terms of finance but in terms of what is taught and how it is taught. This is especially true of the kind of economics we teach and has implications for
Read moreSubmitted by Fair Play Sir Frank Alleyne’s interview on the People’s Business last night was spot-on. As usual, he was cogent, rational, reasonable and, of course, very ‘frank’, no pun intended. All the while, trying not to be overly critical of the administration at Cave Hill, but tacitly showing up its unreasonableness and excessive spending, nonetheless. He walked the proverbial
Read moreSubmitted by Fair Play I believe our plan to ask students to contribute a small part of the cost of their tertiary education at UWI has more public support than we think. Talking to people from all walks of life, and ironically, particularly among low income earners, there is much support. Their comments run the gamut from: it makes sense;
Read moreSubmitted by William Skinner Ladies and gentlemen, our educational system has been a beacon in the Caribbean and the developing world. However if we are to cope with the pressures for change which lie ahead, the cost of education will be immense, if we are not to be left behind. In order that we are on the right side of
Read moreSubmitted by Charles Knighton With the end of the school term, the rancorous yearly debate vis-a-vis the relative merit of a one-off exam versus a system of continuous assessment again reaches a hiatus, which will be interrupted by precisely the same debate as the time for the next eleven-plus approaches. This being Barbados, where unacted-upon green papers, white papers and
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Barbados Underground 