The Tribune

By RIEL MAJOR

EDUCATION Minister Jeffrey Lloyd said yesterday in the next 12 to 18 months, public school systems will be digital.

Mr Lloyd told reporters outside of Cabinet that his ministry recognises the challenges populating the teaching sector, particularly the Family Islands, and noted that issue will be addressed.

He said: “First of all by more aggressive recruiting but secondly by digitising the system which is already on the way. Last September we signed the contract with BTC and signed the contract in January with Cable and in February with Walker’s Industry.

“One of the very most important components of that is distance education which will enable teachers here in New Providence to be able to teach those classes in New Providence and at the same time students in the Family Islands that have the benefit of such subjects for instance math, science or a foreign language. Those reforms are already on the way, we are already reforming for instance our curriculum you know that it has to be 21st century ready it has to be relevant to the commonwealth of The Bahamas.”

When asked if there will be any major overhauls of schools during the summer break, Mr Lloyd said those kinds of upgrades need longer time than the window of six to seven weeks.

He said: “We are however going to be aggressive in remediating some of the challenges that we have on a number of our campuses that is why we are not waiting on the summer to begin, we are doing them now.

“We have started already; the facility managers have gone into the field and scope the works throughout The Bahamas and those in the most egregious state of disrepair. We are addressing beginning right now because if we wait until summer time I can assure you school will not open properly for a number of those schools and we cannot afford that.”

Mr Lloyd also told reporters people are taking advantage of expanded access to education.

He said: “We have a tuition-free programme at the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI), last year it was way over subscribed. This year also we are going to have tuition free at the University of the Bahamas again...so university students, first-time university students are going to be benefiting from that.”