The Tribune

THE National Development Plan seems to have been going nowhere fast since the draft was released back in 2016.

On Friday, a workshop brought the prospect of nudging the plan back to life.

The challenge any such plan faces of course is ensuring that anything put in motion is taken up by the following administration, or the one after that, or the one after that.

Readers will be very familiar with the common habit of different administrations to stop, review and cancel projects underway in the hands of the previous government.

The Tribune has often been told too of policies that were halted simply because, as has been whispered to us, it was the other side’s idea.

After all, often politicians will have spoken out against one policy or another in opposition – which makes it quite hard to embrace that same policy in government without accusations of hypocrisy.

On Friday, both sides of our very binary political dynamic were present at the workshop. FNM leader Michael Pintard was there, economic Affairs Minister Michael Halkitis was there... but will that crystalise into a mutual agreement?

In the short term, the progress was small. there were agreements reached, notably in terms of funding and allowing a team to continue the work.

There are of course significant updates to be carried out since 2016. We have had much that has happened in our country since then. the destruction of Hurricane Dorian brought home the need to focus thoughts on climate change. The pandemic hammered home how dependent our economy is on tourism. there have long been talks about our nation’s dependence on food imports – albeit we do not appear to have made vast strides in remedying that.

What happens next? Well, a report will be compiled and sent to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). We must hope this is not the end of the matter, but rather the beginning – and that we are not looking on in a year’s time as we are with the resolution to create a Human Rights Committee that has had no members appointed nor meetings held.

A National Development Plan must not just be a talking shop, but must be a plan of action.

And the first action to take is to overcome our divides to focus on taking one step after another, and another, and another, regardless of who is taking the step.

the plan reached draft form under the Christie administration. It takes this next step under the Davis administration. It should not just be a PLP plan. Or an FNM plan. But a united national plan.

Can we achieve that?

If we cannot, then it will go back on the shelf under a future administration, to gather dust rather than to carry us forward.

Part of our efforts to move forward as a nation must focus on our education system.

The latest exam result were released on Friday – and were a mixed outcome.

There was a slight drop in the number of candidates in both the BJC and the number of candidates earning C or better in at least five subjects.

There was an increase in the number of candidates securing D or above in five or more subjects – but a drop in the number getting at least a C in Maths, English or Science.

In the BGCSE, however, there was a ten percent increase in candidates, and improvements for both boys and girls in their grades.

These grades compare year on year, so they both involve children who had their education disrupted by the lockdowns of the pandemic. The effects of that should not be dismissed – but nor can it be an excuse for any decreases.

We must keep striving to improve for the sake of our children. After all, if we truly are to implement a National Development Plan, it will be those children who see it through.