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Bahamas Education System Suffers From Bad Policy Decisions - Post Independence 1973
Related to country: Bahamas

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Education System Suffering From Bad Policy Decisions, Archer Says:
By Candia Dames -
Nassau, Bahamas:



The country’s education system is still suffering from some of the bad policy decisions made after independence in 1973, according to former High Commissioner to CARICOM A. Leonard Archer, who is also a former educator who headed the Bahamas Union of Teachers.

Mr. Archer, who was the special guest on the Love 97/JCN programme "Jones and Company" on Sunday, said that after independence many good teachers felt they were no longer welcomed in the system and so they left.

The result, he said, was a shortage of educators in the public school system and the powers that be lowered the standards teachers had to meet before being hired.

It meant that many teachers were brought in with lower qualifications and the system today is still suffering from that, Mr. Archer opined.

He said that after independence questions were being raised about whether English teachers, for example, ought to be teaching Bahamian students. Mr. Archer said his opinion was that Bahamian parents did not care about the nationality of teachers; all they wanted were good teachers teaching their children.

"The prevailing mood in the country was The Bahamas for Bahamians," said Mr. Archer, adding that the fear some people had was that foreign teachers were teaching Bahamian children foreign concepts.

He said the decision was made to get rid of them, but "I think we went too far."

Noting that the prevailing problem in the country is crime, the show’s host, Wendall Jones, noted that many people believe it is related to the failure of the education system.

Mr. Archer said he agrees.

"The successful students are working and earning," he said. But Mr. Archer noted that this doesn’t hold true in every single case.

He agreed generally that successive governments should take responsibility for the failures in education, and rising crime.

But Mr. Archer said, "There were no protests that I recall [by] the general public when all the teachers were leaving, so it’s a part of all of our responsibility, so pointing the finger is not going to solve it. We all have to work together to solve it."

He said the time has come for straight talking on issues like education.

"I think we dance around too many issues," Mr. Archer said.


March 31, 2008

March 31, 2008 | 5:42 PM Comments  0 comments

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