The Tribune

By BRANVILLE 
McCARTNEY

Leader, Democratic 
National Alliance

THE school year has officially begun and I am sure all right thinking persons wish only the very best for our students who are here and abroad.

Education is key to the positive progress of our society. Education must move with the times. If, as a society, the Bahamas is to compete on the world stage, we MUST be an educated society.

My concern is that many of our young people and parents do not take education seriously and they are just satisfied with the bare minimum. They fail to acknowledge and accept that they can produce excellence in their own right.

This is surely a recipe for disaster and is detrimental to our society. So our first step is to instil in our children the importance, or should I say, the need for a proper education.

This, indeed, is the responsibility of the parents and guardians who, in my view must be held responsible for the proper education of their children.

As parents, they must ensure that their children go to school and be held liable if they fail to carry out this duty.

The parents must get to know their children’s teachers and the administration of the school. There ought to be constant contact with the teacher.

Remember that the teacher is with your children for the better part of the day. It only makes sense to know who has the care and conduct of your child during those hours.

As parents, they must ensure that they get to know the parents of the other students. Attending Parent Teacher Association meetings ought to be a must.

Getting to know the other students in your child’s class is also very important. You would want to know what the other students are thinking and doing.

It is essential that parents spend time with their children doing homework and projects. Attending extra curricular activity programmes is also a must.

You see, a parent’s job is being there for their children and helping to guide them in the right direction.

The teachers ought to ensure that they treat every child in their classroom as if they were their own children. Special attention ought to be given where necessary.

Constant contact and personal meetings with the parents ought to be a requirement and continuous encouragement for those students who may have difficulty “keeping up”.

Teachers ought to instil in their students that there is no such thing as a “stupid question”. In my view teachers play such a fundamental role in our society. In many instances, the role of the teacher can determine the type of society we have.

Unfortunately today in our beloved Bahamas, we have a society that has missed the boat. We have not embraced education the way we should have and as a result we are not where we ought to be almost 40 years after independence.

As a matter of fact, we are now losing our middle class, which is a dangerous position for any society to be in.

We are now becoming a country of haves and have-nots!

It is very difficult to say that we as a society is better off today than we were 20 years ago. But we need to look at the positive and deal with the situation at hand.

This new administration has a great opportunity now to make the necessary changes that are warranted to ensure that our children and their children have a good future.

They have an opportunity now to ensure that the Bahamas can compete on the world stage and be the forerunners.

They have an opportunity to ensure that although the Bahamas may be a small country, we can be most powerful.

They have an opportunity to invest in our future so that we do have better and brighter days ahead!

This would certainly entail some bold initiatives such as the government committing to ongoing and transformative professional development opportunities for principals, teachers and all other education stakeholders; introducing a new curriculum commencing at primary school level that will incorporate the necessary social, personal and health programmes; reducing class sizes by building modern school facilities and enhancing existing school facilities; supporting the creation of the highest quality teacher training programme possible (there must be a focus on increasing the number of trained special education professionals and literacy and numeracy coaches; undertaking a holistic curriculum review to ensure that the National Curriculum is consistent with National Development Goals of the Bahamas and aligned to ensure competence in the 21st century; giving professional attention and providing targeted interventions for all students on the special needs spectrum; focusing on increasing the number of trained special education professionals to meet the needs of students with learning differences; creating an open access program to enable all Bahamians to achieve a high school equivalency diploma; ensuring that students are promoted based on achievement and not based on age; ensuring that the University of the Bahamas becomes a reality; transforming BTVI into an autonomous, high tech, premier technical and vocational institute (and improve BTVI’s programme offerings to create a productive and innovative workforce to drive business and industry); and creating a consortium of magnet schools or schools of excellence to meet and engage a variety of student interests.

The government, I submit, must ensure that there is annual monitoring, reviewing, and evaluating of strategies that must be put in place.

They must publicly report successes and challenges and make the necessary amendments to improve the educational system.

People, we cannot continue with the same ole, same ole!! The Bahamas cannot take much more.

We must be innovative, think outside the box and strive for excellence with no child being left behind!

A ‘D’ average ought to be no longer accepted in this great Commonwealth.

Is this government willing to implement these initiatives for the well-being of our future? I truly hope so.