This past week, there has been a great deal of discussion on education, with the start of the new academic year following on the results of the 11-Plus, CSEC and CAPE examinations.
We suspect that the greatest focus this year has been on the creation of sixth form facilities at the St Michael School and Foundation School.
With increased educational opportunities, fuelled by our Independence and the acceleration of an enlightened educational policy, there was a need to move beyond the limited sixth form education facilities of former times, when The Lodge School, Harrison College, Queen’s College and Combermere School were the only providers of sixth form tuition.
The Barbados Community College (BCC) was created, amidst much controversy, to help fill the need; but it soon became clear, with a university campus at Cave Hill, that more youngsters capable of going on to tertiary level education would begin to seriously consider their options of continuing to sixth form studies as a precursor to entering university.
With about 1 700 students applying for sixth form places this year, the new facilities at Foundation and The St Michael School will be a welcome fillip to the hopes of many who might otherwise be denied the chance to pursue their CAPE examinations to which their excellent CSEC results entitled them.
The Minister of Education’s disclosure that the sixth form schools meet only 35 per cent of the need easily justifies the expansion of the facilities.
The record will show that many of these students from fifth form schools have moved on to the sixth form ones and the BCC and have distinguished themselves, often winning Scholarships and Exhibitions. It is a situation which makes one wonder about their erstwhile colleagues who might not have been lucky enough to get into a sixth form school or the BCC.
This small country cannot afford to waste a single brain, not least because of the adverse impact which exclusion from sixth form education may have on the ambitious individual.
The two schools chosen are located in the south and centre of the island and the need for similar facilities at schools in the north is equally sound.
The Alleyne School in St Andrew, and Alexandra and Coleridge & Parry in St Peter are, we hope, next in line; but as the minister informed us, the faster pace at which he wanted to move was stymied by the economic recession, but increasing the access to educational opportunities is always a cause worthy of the effort.
