A D+ NATION? CHANGING THE SCHOOLS WILL CHANGE THE GRADE

The past few years have seen a rising chorus of concern over our failing educational system. Both private and public sector leaders say we are facing a national "crisis" with the potential to destroy our prosperity and our childrens' future. Several articles on this site have outlined the scope of the problem and discussed some of the solutions. Here we present the views of Neil Sealey, a Bahamian who has spent 25 years in higher education, serving as a professional examiner for GCE O and A levels, as well as the BGCSE exams, and instructing trainee teachers at the College of the Bahamas and in-service through field courses and workshops. He received an MA in Geography from the University of Oxford and was awarded a fellowship at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He has written several text books that are currently used in Bahamian schools, and continues to be active in research and writing.

The problem
Following reports and debates on the state of education earlier this year we now have the annual results from the high schools on our students’ achievements – another D+. While every country tends to bemoan its educational system, and many will say standards are falling universally. There is no reason to feel that improvements are out of our reach. In fact many countries do better than us and it is quite possible to quickly and effectively overhaul and improve our educational system.

Although a number of social factors are contributing to the present situation, such as the increase in single-parent families, the impact of drugs and gangs, and lack of parental guidance, this should not disguise the fact that the educational system itself is inadequate, or that the government cannot do anything without everyone else doing something as well. This would be burying our heads in the sand. This is not a problem that is going to go away, and it is not going to solve itself. It is a problem with a solution that needs action now. As has been said elsewhere ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’.

The solution
The fact is we can do something about the standard of education and the results we are getting and we can do it now. We can tackle the public educational system, which has much to answer for, and make it work better.

One way to think of it is to imagine the students of, say, three schools with D or worse results. Does anyone think that if we took those students and put them in our three best schools for their school life they would still average such a low score? I doubt it – they would collectively do a lot better because they would have better resources, better facilities, better security, and better teachers (collectively, individually excellent teachers can be found anywhere, but overall the teachers in the top schools will out-perform the others).

In other words we can deal with the poor grades and generations of under-educated and disadvantaged Bahamians by making the government schools much better now. That is not to say that all the state schools are totally inadequate, but it is at their level that rapid and substantive changes can be made. There are many private schools that need improvement, but these cannot be tackled collectively, and in fact they will be forced to improve if the government schools improve – otherwise why would anyone use them? With a few notable exceptions, British state schools out-perform the private schools, and for that reason most Britons send their children to state schools. This wasn’t always the case.

Another way to illustrate this point is to consider the College of the Bahamas’ College Prep programme. In the 1980s it was recognized that many students were failing to reach COB's entrance requirements, so COB decided to accept students with less than the requirements and put them in a programme – College Prep – which effectively redid their school work more effectively and raised them to college level. In other words COB with its resources and faculty were doing what the schools – mostly government schools – where failing to do in the first place. The students were capable of getting good grades, but the schools weren’t delivering. In this way a small percentage of the potential college entrants can actually be admitted to college, but this is only a very limited ‘band-aid’ for the problem, and not a solution.

Obviously we can’t start moving students into other schools, but we can do virtually the same thing by raising the standard of ministry schools to that of the best schools. This is a finite solution, and it will work. However, it will only work across the board. All the primary and secondary schools must be improved substantially - it won’t be enough to tinker with the system.

If children do not get a good primary education they will not be able to make it up later. As an example, it is known that spatial perception in children needs to be developed early in the primary years. If they are not exposed to geographical and mapwork skills and exercises early on they bypass the window in which spatial awareness is fully developed in the brain, and they will have difficulty making spatial relationships for the rest of their lives. A typical symptom of this in adults is the inability to follow map routes, or follow directions to locations, or to locate themselves on maps or aerial photographs. All the main school subjects have this requirement in the early primary school years, and so a solid primary education is essential before students enter the secondary system.

Pretty much the same principles apply throughout the secondary years, whether it is in preparation for vocational training, further education or higher academic pursuits. Patching a classroom here or a school there is not going to solve the problem; the whole system needs to be rebuilt.

Alternatively we can continue to blame insoluble social problems for poor performances and continue to have our youth entering the workforce below their capabilities and performing probably below their potential for the rest of their lives. Remember these people will be the nation’s workforce for the next 50 years!

The teachers
The most sensitive area is undoubtedly the quality of teaching. There is a lot at stake here and it needs to be recognized that if teachers are given low wages, poor facilities, inadequate security, and subjected to unjust promotion or lack of it, then the profession will not attract quality personnel, and those that enter it will leave, either to better schools or to leave education altogether.

There are many opportunities in The Bahamas, a country with acute labour shortages in almost every professional field, so why should someone capable of getting a university degree, and who undoubtedly can perform well in many areas, put themselves in an underpaid and under-appreciated profession?

The schools
To start with, the government schools, generally responsible for the lowest performances, and more importantly the system that can most easily be improved and which would force improved standards on all other schools, should be overhauled.

If we retire the poorest teachers quickly, increase teacher pay substantially, provide professional support in terms of adequate staff rooms, security, bathrooms, car parking and all the other things that successful corporations know will attract and hold quality staff, then we’ll have made a start.

Then the students need well-equipped classrooms and specialty facilities for individual subjects. We need language labs with technicians, modern equipment, and the software and annually renewed texts and materials that go with them. We need physics labs, chemistry labs, and biology labs; workshops, libraries, computers and field trips. And an annual supply of instruments, chemicals, animals, and so on.

Computers should not be installed as an occasion for a political photo-op, but as a matter of course. Many of our schools have computers and no budget for software – what use is that? Computers are tools in the sense that blackboards and slide projectors were a generation ago (and still are, but no longer in isolation).

Our libraries need to be modernized, properly funded, and expanded from books to all the other relevant media, and specifically computerized facilities including full access to the Internet as a matter of routine. Despite decades of PCs the majority of our school leavers are computer illiterate.

We are very fortunate in this country to have an exceptional cadre of world-class athletes. We all know these reached their full potential by going to the best coaches, the best colleges, and being pushed to their limits, and we are all proud of them. Why aren’t we doing this for every school subject? Where are our Nobel Prize winners? St Lucia has two!

Spin-off
We should also realize that many of the social problems that are now being blamed for our poor educational standards will start to disappear when we have our youth properly educated. With model schools and top-rate teachers, students will leave school qualified for further education or a decent life in a chosen vocation. When our school-leavers enter the workforce with confidence they will make certain their children do at least as well as they did.

Otherwise we are going to continue this downward spiral – it has to be broken in the one place we can control.

Conclusion
The quickest and surest thing we can do is upgrade every aspect of the government school system now. We will need consultants and expatriates for sure, and have to spend a lot of money. But this is the kind of endeavour that agencies like the OAS and IDB, and the EU, will support. The country can also create an educational tax, be it on cars, hotels, gas, cigarettes or property – it doesn’t matter what, even a lottery.

Basically this is a rich country, and a definitive rebuilding of the public educational system will be the best investment the Bahamas can ever make. It can be done, no doubt with difficulty and controversy, but without it we are doomed to remain a D+ nation.

Comments

[Rick Lowe]

The Nassau Institute has been advocating for years that all schools should be privatized.
Looks like we are right?
The main issue that the government misses is that our children, the people they claim to love so much, are the one's suffering when they get out into the workforce.

[Etienne Christen]

I believe that directly funding education to the fullest extent through the introduction of a national lottery or some other form of 'sensible' taxation is an excellent idea. Opening the possiblity of 'all solutions' to fix the Bahamian education system is vital, because what the politicians don't seem to understand is that if the Bahamas can fix education for at least a generation or two, then the whirlwind of benefit that would result would amaze everyone. The wealth of a nation is its people and in the information age, the people's education determines that wealth.

[Interested]

Fixing the D+ secondary school system is certainly important. But even more so is fixing the Brain Drain problem where most of those who become educated leave the Country to be run by a very small group of talented folks leading a large untalented group.

Those who become educated leave as quickly as they can and stay gone once they realized their talents are wasted in an economy and political system thats going no where.

This is our real problem.

[alvardo]

Our country has been abusive towards our educational system for decades.I'am currently a student at a public institution.I went to a public shcool in Wartford,England for a year.Compared to ours its a joke,free excercise material is provided even workpads.Here the students are exposed to an array of educational wonders.There is even a Community college featured at the opposite end of the complex.The school features three art and dance studios.A gym,auditorium and a cafeteria.Even a technical library,compared to our schools you yourself can be the judge.While watching the news a few years back a lady quoted "if this school was a hotel it would have been finished long ago"The reason for this statement is because our government.Is way more concern for our guests than the residents which is terrible.The country the Bahamas idolizes has a complete education system.The problem we discuss is not a new one but its now time to finally do something about it.Today our college{COB}has to begin teaching its new students what the high schools are not doing.But perhaps Mr.Neil Sealey we have taken to much pity along the governments side.In todays Bahamian society the majority of residents wish to work for a major hotel.Yet the few that try to venture into there own buisness are in either tremendious debt or are about to be closed down.Why because the government is to concern catering to the major dealers.Our schools are like slave ships coming from Africa all they do is deliver slaves like they were instructed.I'am simply here making another soon to be ignored Bahamians are not meant to be slaves and its is sickening that a black nation even think about a thought so disrespectful towards our race.MY NAME IS ALVARDO BETHEL AND THREW ME THIS COUNTRY WILL FIND AWAY I'AM NOT A POLITCIAN I'AM TO YOUNG BUT REMEMBER MY NAME WITH THE HELP OF GOD I WILL REVOLUTIONIZE DIS CORRUPT AND CURSED SOCIRTY OF OURS.