The government’s ongoing campaign to address certain key and persistent challenges in the education system received a major boost Friday when education, labour and training officials signed a $22.5 million contract with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for the funding of an initiative which officials said they expect would result in major improvements in education.
Eighty percent or $18 million of the funding for the inter-ministerial initiative will be provided by the IDB; the remaining $4.5 million will be provided by the Bahamas Government.
According to Education, Science and Technology Minister Alfred Sears, the Bahamas Support Programme for Transforming Education and Training is designed to promote long-term economic competitiveness through the development of a “dynamic” education and training system.
He added that this goal would be achieved by ensuring that the education and training system is developed in a way that can satisfy the demands of the economy for skilled human resources, but also noted some of the conditions that have militated against its achievement.
“When I was appointed Minister of Education in May 2002 indicators of educational achievement in The Bahamas were good,” Mr. Sears said during a news conference held in the conference room of the Ministry of Finance.
“Nevertheless several human resource development challenges remained to be addressed in order to facilitate economic progress, reduce social problems and enable Bahamian youth to develop their full potential.”
Some of those difficulties, he said, were the limited number of pre-school spaces in the 28 units attached to public schools on New Providence and Grand Bahama, the lack of resources to accommodate special students, the absence of teachers aides in pre-schools and special education classes and “acute” skills shortages which negatively impacted various trades.
“Today universal pre-school education is well on the way to becoming a reality in The Bahamas and the Ministry of Education has added 23 more (units) with 10 of these being in Family Island schools on Andros, Eleuthera and Cat Island,” Mr. Sears said.
He added that special students and children of all socio-economic backgrounds are today able to begin their formal education at the age of three years.
Last year the ministry hired 57 teacher aides to assist pre-school teachers and with special education classes, the education minister said.
According to Mr. Sears, the project will comprise three elements.
“The first component involves the implementation of new pre-school legislation, curriculum and standards,” he said.
“This component will focus on the development of targeted programmes to facilitate the inclusion of children with unmet needs into the pre-school system, including economically disadvantaged children in remote areas, vulnerable populations such as Haitian immigrant children and children with special needs.”
The second and third components will focus, respectively, on implementing a national framework to align technical and vocational education training at the secondary and post-secondary levels and providing technical assistance for technology integration, according to Mr. Sears.
In his remarks Minister of State for Finance James Smith said the inter-ministerial initiative is expected to play an important role in the countryﾒs continued development.
“I think most observers would agree that our economy is at a take off point in terms of growth and development,” he said.
“One of the by-products of this economic takeoff is the provision of sustained and suitable employment opportunities for generations of young Bahamians. If we are to take advantage of these coming opportunities we will need to establish a platform upon which we can continue to construct a just and prosperous society.”
According to Mr. Smith, certain preparatory steps would have to be taken before the country is able to take full advantage of the coming opportunities.
First and foremost of those steps, he said, is the need to develop and introduce the education and skills training required by stakeholders.
Iwan Sewberath, IDB acting country representative, also expressed confidence that the initiative will prove beneficial.
“I see this programme as a very important matching exercise in the sense that it will on the one hand analyse and map out the demand for skilled labour while on the other hand it will tailor the supply of skilled labour according to the needs,” he said.
“Here is where the public private partnership becomes important.”
By: Darrin Culmer, The Bahama Journal
