A sad note was injected into an otherwise upbeat opening ceremony of the 18th National Education Conference yesterday afternoon at the Wyndham Nassau Resort when Minister of Education Alfred Sears announced that Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia “Mother” Pratt’s husband, Joseph, had been admitted to intensive care at the Princess Margaret Hospital within the previous 24 hours. Neither Mr. Sears nor Mrs. Pratt revealed what was the cause of Mr. Pratt’s hospitalisation.
Mr. Sears made the announcement in the course of introducing Mrs. Pratt, who was standing in for Prime Minister Perry Christie as the keynote speaker.
“She was asked within an hour ago whether she could carry on in this difficult time,” Mr. Sears said, “and she said she could.”
“I am not here on any strength of mine,” a calm, strong-voiced Mrs. Pratt began her speech, “but on the strength of God. There have been a lot of challenges within the last 24 hours, but as always, there is always a challenge waiting around the corner for Mother Pratt.
“But always, as an old educator, we always rise to the challenge,” she said to loud applause, adding that she wanted to be there for the teachers to whom, she said, much is owed for the building of the Bahamian state on the eve of the 32 Anniversary of Independence.
“We owe much of this to you,” Mrs. Pratt told 1615 educators who had registered for the conference from throughout the Commonwealth. “That’s why I have come here today to celebrate education and the teachers of our beloved country.
“When you get right down to it, you are the true authors of the Bahamian state. It was your instruction on slate, on chalkboard, in classrooms under the trees and often by lamplight; your willingness to walk miles to get resources … You instilled in us the notion that we Bahamians were smart and beautiful, although most of us looked different from the people who ruled us. You inculcated the belief that we had the right to govern ourselves and to be masters of our earthly destinies.
While underscoring the need for an education that would forge and maintain a workforce that could compete globally and minds capable of seeing the big picture, as well as citizens capable of caring for their environment and understanding the “source of our heritage,” Mrs. Pratt told the educators she would go even further.
“I will go further and say that if The Bahamas is to achieve dignified nationhood in the 21st Century,” she said, “every lesson, every text must uphold as fundamental the moral and spiritual intelligences; those core understanding understandings, values and instincts that will accept and defend the rights of others and the sanctity of all life.
“Our schools must develop good citizens who see laws, rules and regulations as necessary frameworks for an orderly society; citizens who put a premium on character and godliness. The Bahamian nation needs citizens who are self-assessing, self-directing, self-governing; not having to be forced into socially acceptable behaviour or having to live under the shadow of policemen.
Mr. Sears said in his remarks that the purpose of the conference, which runs through Thursday, “is to engage all stakeholders in a collaborative and comprehensive review of the education system toward a shared vision for education in 21st Century Bahamas.
The largely cultural programme, for which Creswell Sturrup, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, was Master of Ceremonies, included performances by the Royal Bahamas Police Force Band, a dance presentation by three students for Doris Johnson Senior High School, and a solo by Sheree Rolle, Teacher of the Year at Uriah McPhee Primary School in New Providence.
By: Richard E. Fawkes, The Nassau Guardian
