Education Minister, Santia Bradshaw
Education Minister, Santia Bradshaw says she is not opposed to parents opting to homeschool their children rather than sending them back to the classroom in September.
She said however the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training “has a set of guidelines that it asks persons to follow. We have to have certain oversight in ensuring that the students are following the syllabus”.
Bradshaw disclosed this recently as she addressed a press conference at the Education Ministry’s Constitution Road, Bridgetown headquarters. During this, she also pointed out there has been an increase in requests from parents of late wishing to go the route of homeschooling their children.
“We have also looked at homeschooling because there have been more requests as well from parents to keep children at home. We have a number of students that have done exceptionally well through homeschooling. We have indicated that there is a procedure that has to be followed.”
Bradshaw added she is “not going to deter persons from pursuing that option. I think it is to be encouraged and therefore persons who are interested and who may be a bit reluctant to send their children to school, there are options that the Ministry has available and will continue to make available. We recognise everyone will not be on the same page, but we are willing to accommodate where we possibly can to ensure that children are certainly able to learn at this point in time.”
She further stated, “There are still basic things that we expect students are going to learn even if there is some deviation from the actual syllabus.”(MG)