Some of the students at the Erdiston Teachers' Training College collecting their forms.
By:
Patricia Thangaraj
Over the years, there has been a tremendous improvement in the education that is being offered by the private schools in Barbados.
This is the belief of Acting Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Senator Harcourt Husbands, who delivered the feature address at the recent Opening Ceremony for the Bachelor of Education Programme (Primary) and the Vocational Teachers’ Training Programme in Adult Education, at the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College.
“Private institutions can now more readily access training; and let me say about the private institutions, when I was at school and when I was at Erdiston, a lot of what was given as private education in Barbados was below the standard of what attained at Government schools. Since I have come back to teaching, since I have come back to education, I have visited many of these private schools and the standard is extremely high,” he highlighted.
He pointed out that this is because while the publicly-funded schools tend to cruise by on the achievements that they have already made, these private schools make an effort to improve their standards.
“I am saying that while we rested on our laurels, these people were coming to Erdiston. There are more trained teachers in the private sector – I believe without having the evidence – than at any time in the past, and if we continue…to pull down the schools that we teach in and hold them up to public ridicule, more and more people are going to save their pennies and cents and send their children to some of these private schools that offer a quality education,” he charged.
It is with this in mind that the Acting Education Minister urged persons to be very careful about what they say and to whom they say it.
“So we have to be very careful when we discuss our schools and when we discuss education in Barbados. We can actually be 'spitting in the' air if we are not extremely careful and that
applies not only to you, but people in the Ministry, people like myself…
“There are some private schools in Barbados that offer an extremely high, quality education at an international standard and it is not as expensive as you might think,” Husbands added.
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