BY KEVA LIGHTBOURNE GUARDIAN STAFF REPORTER

Just five days into the new school year, Bahamas Union of Teachers president, Kingsley Black, called for a shift in the allocation of investment in education.

Addressing the topic of "Public Education" at the Rotary Club of West Nassau weekly luncheon held at Buena Vista Restaurant on Thursday, Mr. Black stressed that there needs to be a "heavy concentration" in secondary and tertiary education to pre-school education, in recognition of the fact that a strong foundation is critical to improving the quality of graduates.

"We waste so much money and time in primary and secondary schools and forget that if we give the child a good start at the pre-school level much of our woes in the primary and secondary schools will evaporate," Mr. Black said, adding that "without the foundation there is nothing to build on."

However, he said a streamlined primary school curriculum should be in place, which allocates at least two thirds of the time to reading, writing, computation and computer skills.

"Why in the world does a primary school student need to have on their report card 10 different subjects that they take? It should be only three or four. All the others should be complimentary," Mr. Black said.

"The focus is wrong. That is why we consistently graduate students who can't read and write, and who have no marketable skills because we do not have the policies in place to yield those results," he said.

Additionally, Mr. Black said the senior high school curriculum should follow suit which will allow students to adopt individual time tables designed to strengthen basic academic skills from the primary level, but with at least 60 per cent focus on skills and training.

"How in the world we are going to supply the economy with skills, if we have students frustrating them to death training them to be doctors and lawyers and whatever, when they can't even read at grade level," Mr. Black said.

"Try and teach them some skills because most of our people are going to be blue collar workers. That is what happens in the wider society. We don't have a proliferation or a surplus of the professions. We have a shortage and so we need to focus our resources to mirror what reality is," he continued.

Mr. Black said it is also BUT's vision for the public education system in The Bahamas to provide some sort of "unbreakable safety net" designed to provide equality of opportunities for at risk students including those with learning disorders and social problems.

Mr. Black said he was happy to hear Education Minister Alfred Sears, reporting that there will be mass screening of public school students to determine what the learning disabilities are so that programmes can be designed to cater to the specific needs of the various groups.

Accordingly, Mr. Black submitted that if the organisation's vision for public education was a reality, the chronic confusion in the public education system would not exist; school maintenance and repairs would not be done annually in September, school safety and security would not be an issue, and all high school graduates would have marketable skills, and the supply of labour would at least equal the demand for labour in the Bahamian economy.

Said Mr. Black, "It is my view that the current public education system has its strong points but there are too many inherent weaknesses. The good that is being achieved in certain areas is overshadowed by all the negative things, which are happening simultaneously. This situation underscores the lack of focus and strategic direction in public education," Mr. Black said.

He concluded by challenging the Government to create a more effective and efficient public education system, while involving teachers in the policy making process.

Caption: Mr. Black

Posted Friday 5 September, 2003