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Bahamian Education For Bahamians In The Bahamas
Related to country: Bahamas

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A ‘Bahamian’ Education In The Bahamas:
By Sasha L. Lightbourne -
Nassau, Bahamas:


In addition to certain requisite universal knowledge, students in Bahamian schools must also be made familiar with that which is uniquely Bahamian, according to a senior education official. Elma Garraway, permanent secretary in the ministry of education, said that there are certain standards that are required of all students at given levels.

"There are certain skill competencies, certain concepts they must know and certain bodies of knowledge that they must be able to understand at certain levels in schooling, she said.

"While we have universal bodies of knowledge and universal concepts, there is certain information that must be relative to one’s culture, country, history and geography."

Mrs. Garraway’s comments come as minister of education, Carl Bethel, recently expressed the need to ‘Bahamianize’ the curriculum in primary and high schools throughout the country.

He said education is not only an academic phenomenon but also a cultural one.

"By ‘Bahamianizing’ the curriculum what we are saying is that if we are teaching the ABC’s for pre-schoolers, while we can say ‘B’ is for ‘bananas’, we can also say ‘B’ is for Bahamas," she said. "Our officers have been working very hard to ensure this happens."

The permanent secretary said that in the past Bahamian textbooks have been produced by the ministry.

"When I was at the College of the Bahamas, it along with the Bahamas Hotel Association developed the first series of textbooks for social studies and tourism education from the first grade into sixth grade," Mrs. Garraway said. "They centered around Bahamian concepts, ideas and social studies areas."

In more recent times, the ministry has a writing unit dedicated to producing Bahamian literature for students, according to the permanent secretary.

"They have written language arts books for the third, fourth and fifth grades and in those levels children see Bahamian people some whom they may know and so all the comprehension passages in addition to those that are universal have Bahamian content, and that is the idea."

Mrs. Garraway said Bahamianizing the curriculum is good for developing good citizenship.

"It is also good for building self-esteem especially in the young ones," she said. "Our students need to be able to understand our model of democracy, the role of a family island senior administrator, why is it that a local government election must be held and the electoral process mirrors that of a national election.

"All of that helps general education of children and getting them to live successfully in a democratic society."

August 29, 2008

August 29, 2008 | 1:10 PM Comments  0 comments

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