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by Paula-Anne Moore
Greetings and best wishes to all of Barbados TODAY readers, as I salute all of you in this my first column for the (still) New Year!
There have been so many issues of national interest and concern relating to our children that have emerged since the last column.
The four-year-old in the ZR van, the reported conduct of the child and his parent, the prevailing profane environment that is shaping that child and so many of our nation’s children to their detriment. The video, which circulated publicly, and what it said about the risk to this child’s future unless major, rapid and sustained intervention is made, hurt my heart. Is that child representative of many of our nation’s children? The attempt to defend the indefensible by some of the public and those public figures who are not using their leadership position constructively was also deeply troubling.
I express my deepest condolences to the Nicholls family, the staff of Nicholls Bakery and the Bibby’s Lane community over their profound loss of Mitchell Nicholls. The horror of his passing is made worse by the loss of his clear potential, evidenced by his reported kindness and significant achievements at so tender an age. We, parents, grieve with you.
We continue to see the tragic parade of our teen boys and young men, often fathers themselves, as defendants in our court system. Most of them, after 12 years of school, have little education certification to earn a legitimate living and their community mentors often influence another path.
There were recent reports of two girls caught up in inappropriate endeavours and environments, one of whom lost her life. These girls, some would say, are products of privilege, and demonstrate that the siren call of the ‘sub-culture’ is not limited to those who lack privilege. Their stories are cautionary tales that not only our boys are at risk. We must address the underlying reasons why so many youths have given up on our traditional societal norms. I do acknowledge that some of these norms need to be more responsive to modern living.
The Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT), Jeff Broomes and I have all recently called for the Ministry of Education to delay the Common Entrance Examination by a month to early June, to ensure fairness and maximise all candidates’ success, given the deleterious effect of five academic years of the pandemic on education.
Those Bajans who have access to myriad education resources – lessons, education aids, private schools with small class sizes – might not want to delay the 11-plus exam. Their children will be ready for the original date, or they can opt out of the public system and go to private secondary school.
I had great resistance from a number of those parents who would be considered bourgeois who were – some would say – selfishly against our ultimately successful lobby for the delay of the CXC CSEC and CAPE exams in 2022.
The 11-plus exam also evokes a lot of stress for all of us; there is a natural desire to ‘just get it over with’ and not extend the wait for the exam even if the delay is in the student’s best interest.
But if we are being fair to perhaps the majority of Class Four children, many do not have additional financial resources for private lessons and other support.
So the additional class time with their teachers before the exam is crucial to ensure they play catch-up with the teaching time lost to the pandemic.
On behalf of those children and teachers who have indicated that they need the additional time to optimally prepare for the exams, I thank the BUT leadership, the legendary Jeff Broomes and so many others for advocating for a reasonable delay in the best interests of all children.
We look forward to the ministry’s response to this proposal soon.
We cannot help but note, with some significant concern, the almost daily environmental and infrastructural maintenance issues in schools, and apparent sub-optimal responsiveness to parents, teachers and children.
St John Primary, the accident with the janitor at Mount Tabor Primary (we wish her a speedy recovery), Luther Thorne Memorial, and now St Bartholomew – these challenges have had a long history going back decades. Lawrence T Gay, Combermere, Louis Lynch – these schools have had recurring reports of environmental challenges. And these are the ones we know of.
It also seems, according to the BUT and respective PTA statements, that these concerns are resolved only when publicly ventilated.
Parents are calling for a review of the school infrastructure and environmental maintenance system so that this can be addressed in a more timely and proactive manner.
We salute the advocacy of the PTAs of several of these schools, who were unafraid to use private and public channels to advocate for their children. We hope this is the beginning of a new era of parents recognising that they have the right to respectfully insist on recognition of their roles as education stakeholders deserving of responsive and effective engagement.
Perhaps these incidents are evidence that changes need to be made to the allocation of resources and the approval for release of funds to maximise efficiencies, which may be a more systemic issue requiring Cabinet action.
As for the national education reform proposals, what is the latest? Will they be adjusted to reflect the national response? Parents’ questions and uncertainty abound. Nothing has been revealed that convinces us that the proposed radical reconstruction, its ill-advised swiftness, cost, inevitable implementation upheaval and risk are justified by the goals, which can be achieved within the current two-tiered structure.
How can radical education transformation be successfully proposed and implemented if financing, stakeholder engagement and communication are not fit for purpose? We have heard of nothing in the education reform proposals regarding any material changes to these systems, especially as the latter relates to a wide spectrum of parental and student effective involvement.
Paula-Anne Moore is the spokesperson/coordinator of the Group of Concerned Parents, Barbados and the Caribbean Coalition for Exam Redress.
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