To seal up the cracks within this country’s education system, Head of the Citizens Alliance Partnership Wendell Callender insists that it is time for a serious review of its framework.
“You need to look at the syllabus and the number of subjects that students are required to do, and admit that all of the students cannot do the full list of subjects.
“I think in that regard that the Ministry of Education will have to look a little more closely as to how the schools are run, and at the curriculum, and look at the capacity of children to cope with the number of hours of school work they have to do and whether they are compatible with where the child’s interest lays,” he stated.
Callender went a step further and suggested it is also time to consider the implementation of a partial zoning system.
He stated that while students should be tested and those who best qualified for “schools of excellence” allowed to attend these, others should attend educational establishments close to their homes regardless of their test scores.
“I think in terms of the life-skills and practical things that people have to do to cope, every school in Barbados has the capacity to do that. It is just a
matter of school organisation and tweaking the curriculum, and here is where you need a mixed group,” he added.
It is within this mixed group, Callender opined, that higher levels of skills can be achieved.
“As soon as you have a group that appear to be underachievers in one school then you will have problems as there is no one there to encourage them. If there is a partial zoning system however, where there are multi skills and talents within the same group that can help and cooperate, I think it would work better then the fellow with the lowest mark feeling that he is an underachiever before he even starts,” he stated.
Speaking a during recent interview with the Barbados Advocate, he said it is time to look past just achieving a certain number of CXC passes, as inculcating values and passing along life skills are also important.
“A school would have failed if a child passes through its walls and does not have basic skills for life. I think this is where the focus needs to rest,” he stressed.