To wit, students should be educated and trained according to attitude, aptitude, interest and demonstrated capacity.
This nation desperately needs to find better and truer means by which it educates and trains its youth.
And for sure, this education and this new kind of training must be tailored to the capacity of these people.
Evidently, nothing is to be gained by boasting about the academic prowess of the few, if the masses are allowed to graduate from schools ill-prepared and as poorly socialized louts.
We are also absolutely convinced that – as a people – we might wish to emulate in these times practices that did work in times past.
Here we reference that old practice of utilizing students who are proficient as teacher-assistants and as peer mentors.
Use might also be made of community based guides and mentors.
Community-mindedness would therefore find root and the nation at large would be the beneficiary.
Put simply, we need some honest dialogue as to where we should be going from here and about the vitally important part that can and should be played by our nation’s schools and training institutes.
Here take note that, Prime minister, the Rt. Hon. Hubert A. Ingraham spoke well and true as he addressed some of the challenges currently facing this nation’s educators.
But even as the prime minister spoke as he did, we were left with the gnawing suspicion that he was far too kind and far too generous as he delineated the scope, range and extent of the challenges facing this nation’s educators.
As we also suspect, Prime Minister Ingraham is himself quite aware of the fact that, ‘a one size fits all" approach to education and training is simply foolish.
But here take note that, Mr. Ingraham recently noted, "…like health, education has been one of the largest recipients of government funding in every budget cycle since before independence.
As a consequence, we have been able to note some success. As the prime minister noted, "It is with considerable satisfaction then that The Bahamas was able to report to the United Nations that we had achieved the vast majority of the millennium goals for education even as these were just being articulated in international circles.
"It is to the credit of successive Bahamian governments since 1967 that every child in The Bahamas has access to education as a right and that we in the public sector guarantee that there is school space for every child in The Bahamas from kindergarten to Grade 12…"
But as in other misguided or ill-thought out ventures, the devil is to be found in the details.
And here we note how one or two of these finer details were treated by our nation’s leader.
As Mr. Ingraham concedes, "There has been much criticism of the performance of our public schools usually focused around the average grades produced each year…"
Our retort is to the effect that this criticism is precisely to the point, illuminating failure – pure and simple.
But Mr. Ingraham did go on to claim that, [some of] "…those same schools produce graduates who are well above average and some who are even brilliant by any international yardstick…"
This statement cannot and should not be taken at face value.
Indeed, the matter at hand concerning student achievement in any school is far more complex than the prime minister might – at this juncture – realize.
As Mr. Ingraham himself concedes, "…Regrettably, our success in getting every child into a classroom has not translated into every child having achieved his full potential.
"When, in the first half of the 20th century, most children completing primary school could read and write, today too many students leave our secondary schools only semi-literate and semi-numerate…"
Thereafter, the nation’s chief proceeds to describe results we know so very well. As he attests, "In earlier times, academically weak students dropped out of school, learned a trade or became one of a large unskilled and semi-literate work force. They never had the opportunity to attend secondary schools.
"Today, many young persons are kept in school until age 18 but still leave school as unprepared to earn a living as would have their early counterparts who never progressed beyond primary school…"
And herein we find the core of this fledgling nation’s chief puzzle: "The mismatch between money expended on education and the unsatisfactory performance of some of our pupils…"
And this, then, in a context where, "we [nevertheless] have a responsibility to prepare the great majority to make a living and to function as balanced and productive citizens…"
To do this requires little more than establishing the right kind of schools and training institutes for our nation’s academic elite and their counterparts who are merit vocational training.
The time for right action is now.
