Seeking a Consensus on Fixing Education in the Bahamas

by Larry Smith

For the past several years, some business and labour leaders have been seeking a consensus on how to fix our failed education system so that ordinary Bahamians can continue to engage in the economy.

We know our public schools have failed because of the poor grades most students get, as well as the collapse of discipline on many campuses. And also because, as the Inter-American Development Bank said, there are “acute skills shortages at all levels of the Bahamian economy.”

Our awareness of that failure is also based on everyday experience with young people who can’t write simple sentences, do basic arithmetic or work comfortably with computers.

As the IADB put it, “economic prosperity and growth is underpinned by the capacity of the education and training system to prepare a skilled workforce....(and) there is a deficit of basic work skills among secondary school graduates“ in the Bahamas.

Those who run our schools also know there is a crisis in education. They say so plainly on the Ministry of Education web site: “the MOE will need, as a matter of urgency, to undertake the necessary reforms to re-tool Bahamian education... to prepare students for the needs of the country and its economy.” In fact, the public sector staged a big conference last year to talk about “transforming” the education system.

And there’s no shortage of money for this. The government spends well over $200 million every year on public education. And the IADB will pump another $60 million into education reform programmes over the next few years.

But the problem has been getting steadily worse for years, with little overt attention being paid to it by the education bureaucracy. So concerned business and union leaders created something called the Coalition for Education Reform. They included hotel union leaders and hotel employers, representing the nation’s largest business sector.

Although some argue that, as a wasteful government monopoly, public education is an inherent failure and – like Bahamasair – should be scrapped, the Coalition project is based on the notion that public education exists and can be improved significantly.

Last year the Coalition contributed a well-researched report to the national education conference. Named after our failing students – it was called “The Untapped Resource”. And it promoted the bold objective of raising the academic and business capabilities of school leavers so that by 2020 Bahamians would be among the ‘best in the Caribbean’.

This document appeared in the national education conference journal, which was never publicly circulated. It looked at the achievement gaps between public and private high schools, between males and females and in the number of college-qualified school leavers. Many of it’s conclusions were based on an analysis of detailed 2004 exam results from the Ministry of Education. Although you might not believe it, these are also a closely held secret.

Taking a hard look at the facts, the report painted a dismal picture. All those millions of dollars we spend on education managed to produce an overall ‘D’ grade in 2004 (reflecting public and private results for 26 subjects) and an ‘F+’ for the public high schools on New Providence.

Fully 21 per cent of 22,000 students got grades of F, G and U in their BGCSE exams. And the five subjects with the lowest grades were English, Maths, Biology, Economics and Bookkeeping. More than half of those taking the math exam earned an E grade or lower.

But according to the education establishment, this does not mean that they failed, because no-one fails in the current system. Everyone passes on whether they have learned or not, which is by definition "social promotion". A U grade, for example, simply means that the student does not demonstrate any knowledge of the subject.

The Coalition identified 14 strategies to reverse the decline of our public school system, and tried unsuccessfully to arrange a meeting with the political directorate to present their research and suggestions. You would have to ask the education authorities to explain this snub – it doesn’t make a lick of sense to us.

But the Coalition doesn’t want to drop the issue, which it sees as critical to the country’s future. And at a recent Rotary Club meeting, veteran Bahamian hotelier Barrie Farrington (one of the group’s leaders) presented a brief update to last year’s 22-page education report:

“In 2005, 22,380 exams were written in 26 subjects and earned an overall mean grade average of D+. This was a better performance than in 2004 when students wrote 22,147 exams and earned a D. However, this improvement is not yet a trend. Between 1993 and 1998 the BGCSE mean grade moved up and down in the D minus to D range, and since 1999 within a D minus-D plus range.”

Farrington acknowledged a half-grade improvement in the English exam, but said the math result was unchanged from 2004: “This means that while there was improvement in 2005, it is too early to say that there has been a fundamental improvement in what the average student knows, understands and can do after completing high school.

“No subject describes the crisis in education more graphically than the test results in mathematics, because it is considered to be an important basic education skill for the technologies that are likely to dominate the rest of this century. One cannot take the poor math scores lightly, especially when one knows that the average grade on the bookkeeping exam was also an E.”

So what subjects do Bahamian students do best in? The answer is probably much as you would expect – religious studies scored at the top of the list followed by Spanish, food and nutrition, art and music. And religion was also the exam taken in the greatest numbers, with students achieving a mean average grade of C.

“The magnitude of (this) difference (in exam performance) is big,” Farrington said. “It illustrates the complexity of the education crisis. In fact, an objective and authoritative evaluation of the difference in these performances is a useful first step in developing a long-term education plan.”

The government’s painfully slow response to years of academic failure has been to focus on more public pre-schooling. This is a big part of the programme to which the IADB is contributing, and it pre-dates the present administration. Recently, Education Minister Alfred Sears said 12 new pre-school units with trained teachers would be added to the public school system. Experts say effective pre-schooling can make a big difference in a child’s later school life.

But there is a feeling amongst some that making more pre-schools the answer to our educational woes is a little like ordering more lifeboats after the Titanic has hit the iceberg. It is something that the education bureacracy can easily grasp, but what about the current crop of high schoolers? From the Coalition’s 14 strategies to improve education, good governance, good parenting and good teaching topped the list.

Governance was seen as a major barrier to improving education in the Bahamas. For many years, the government has not even bothered to report to parliament (as it is required to do by law). And without a meaningful discussion of the output of the system (students) and its inputs (teachers and administrators) how are we to measure progress?

“Good Parenting is critical to learning,” Farrington told Rotarians recently. “In the Bahamas today perhaps the most disabling factor affecting academic achievement is out-of-wedlock children and the single parent, female-headed family...which is almost always associated with lower educational attainment and more behavioural problems for children.

“The Fox Hill Prison reports that 70 per cent of the 1,503 inmates are the product of single parent households; 93 per cent are males; 80 per cent are between the ages of 15 and 29; and 50 per cent are illiterate. These numbers make it patently clear that single parent households, dominated mainly by women, are a psychologically damaging environment in which to raise young males.

“Somehow Bahamian society must create a 'good parenting script'…a set of commonly held expectations that promote good parenting. Political, education, religious and civic leaders must join in this effort.”

Farrington said the Coalition also supported the creation of an all-male primary and secondary school like the old Government High: “Two threats to Bahamian society are the disengagement of the Bahamian male from school and the state of public schools in Nassau. One solution is a high-quality, all-male primary and secondary laboratory school that operates like a private school.

“There should be student/parent/teacher contracts and enrolment should be conditional on the student and parent meeting their contractual responsibilities. It should stress discipline, high academic expectations and hard work, and offer willing youth and parents a superior education without paying high fees. Prospective students must come from the public school system and failure of the student and parent to meet their stated responsibilities means that the student returns to his public school.”

This is seen as a practical first step that would be followed by an all-female primary and secondary high school. They would be high-quality, high-expectation, high-performance laboratory schools where public school kids could excel. They would also produce techniques and experiences that could be applied to the rest of the system.

Farrington called on the Education Ministry to adopt the flexible management techniques of the private sector in order to produce “a better end product…namely, what students know, understand and can do.

“The ministry must be judged on that end product; and it must be allowed to do its job free from political interference. Sustained success will inevitably require an administrative restructuring.”

Comments

[Kathleen]

I feel that if the school system is not helping its students prosper in the educational system then something needs to change. I think developing twelve new pre-schools woul dbe a wonderful idea, because it can help students start off with some basic knowledge. Also i agree with the article when it states that families have a lot to do with the education process. Overall something needs to be done with this school system. It needs to start having inprovements so that students can succeed.

[interested]

The situation with secondary education in the Bahamas is simply reflective of the massive incapacities and the institutionalized non-productive environment endemic to the Bahamas and its social and economic infrastructure.

Wherever you look critically at important institutional infrastructure in the Bahamas you see this massive non-productive, uncompetitive picture.

To solve these problems will take a long time and a significant amount of talent and a new government stucture.

The problems simply put are to big and complex for the currently available talent pool and government structure. The international and global competition is too formidable.

The other maybe more important aspect of education that continues to have a telling affect is the massive Brain Drain problem. It has been said somewhere before we will not be able to keep up with the Joneses much less compete effectively when the best and the brightest minds continue to leave and stay away from the country whenever they get the chance.

Finally the current govt simply does not seem to have any idea of where to start to solve these problems. In more than four years now they have not come up with one innovative or credible initiative that will even scratch the surface of these problems. This is so even in the face of many many credible ideas having been placed before them.

The FNM also has not c`ome forward with any real solitions, at least not yet, maybe they are waiting for the right time. Let's hope so for the future of the Bahamas.

When we solve this Brain Drain education problem then and only then do we stand a fighting chance to solve the real problems in the Bahamas.

[Carl Cleveland]

I have read and followed the shabby state of affairs of the public school system in the Bahamas.

The solution is quite simple. Get the politicians out of the equation. You have an attorney running the education programme who has no clue how to organize and operate a 60K member school system.

They need an independent school board separate from the party in power.Then the board must retain an experienced, even non-Bahamian, superintendent to clean up the mess created by different adninistrations.

This independent superintendent will eliminate all the politically appointed cronies who have served in the education administration.

This superintendent must have a resume which has to include experience recreating a school system in dire straits as you have here in the Bahamas.

The governing body of COB had the fortitude to elect as their new president someone with the right background,irrespective of the person's race, colour or nationality. The same must be done with the public school system here, before it is to late

[Jasmind Smith]

How many of you are members of your child's P.T.A. or better yet
on the Local School Board.....

Just what I thought.

I am on both and have made request for the M.O.E. to post the curriculum and syllabus for each grade level (every school year) on their web-site. That way I can keep abreast of what course matereial my son is undertaking.

...He just graduated pre-school on Monday evening...G.P.A. 3.5

[jeanean rolle]

i think the problem is that most of the students follow behind fiends.if they would just pick up a book every day, they would not be in this situation
i'm a student too so i know what i'm talking about, because i'm now learning from my mistakes.

[Rick Bedser]

I am interested in applying for a teaching job in the Bahamas. Are there programs available to hire teachers from the US to work in the Bahamas. I teach Social Studies and History in North Carolina. I look forward to your answer.