Public Education: Where Is It  Headed?

The education system was colonial controlled and the curriculum was dictated by British civil servants.The Education System was geared to providing the Bahamian with an education which made us barely literate- the three Rs ( reading , writing and arithmetic).By the time my generation came around there was secondary education available. For Blacks, there were the Government High School , then the only government operated secondary school and the Christain denominational schools, the Anglican St. John’s College and The Catholic St. Augustine’s College for Boys and Xavier’s College for Girls. The Methodist had Queen’s College where the mulatoo children could gain entrance.

To obtai a place in a secondary school ,one had to pass an entrance examination.One had to be at a certain academic standard for admission.M any were denied the opportunity of a secondary education not because they lacked the intelligence but because it was unaffordable. Secondary education was not free. The Colonial masters did not see the provision of a secondary education as an obligation of the government.Their obligation was to make its Colonial Subjects "barely literate".That was the educational enviroment my generation had to accept.

The situation was further compounded by the quality of educations who  comprised the community of teachers.Many of these teahers were untrained but extraordinarily gifted as they were able to acquire the skills of imparting knowledge to children who in some circumstances had no books only slate, no pencils but a small piece of chalk.Classrooms were crowded with as many as 40 or 50 in a class where 6 or 7 kids would sit on long wooded benches. Sometimes , the classroom was under a tree  and one would sit on the ground or a large rock.

Despite these conditions, teaching and learning took place to the point where large enough numbers were able to gain a secondary education and the more fortunate a tertiary education.