The value of education as an instrument of social engineering has never been in doubt, and explains the exultation over our being able to commemorate 50 years of universal free secondary education last week. And as a sign of satisfaction, the Ministry of Education was host to the unveiling of a plaque that will anchor this milestone in the minds of us all.
Minister of Education Ronald Jones reminded us that it was in 1962 the programme of completely free secondary education was added to that of free primary – against some opposition then – and there could be no argument now about the social utility of such a giant policy step. To boot, a few years after 1962, a campus of the University of the West Indies would be established and tertiary education provided free of tuition fees.
It is a signal social achievement that this small island has been able to sustain such a free social programme, notwithstanding the difficult financial times experienced during the past half-century, and the enormous value of such a policy to the development of the human capital of this country is incalculable, as all Barbadians in their moments of sober reflection must agree.
Our offshore sector, for example, could not have been successful without our highly trained workforce, and the new economic initiatives designed to benefit and restructure the economy would hardly see the light of day without a populace trained beyond the elementary level of colonial times. Such has been the contribution and importance of education to a small country escaping stark poverty.
When foreign observers say we punch above our weight, such a statement is a compliment to our educational system, to those who administer it and those who as students show their appreciation of the policy, by studiously applying themselves to the industry of learning.
National maturity
It is perhaps a pleasing reflection of our national maturity that the only serious issue for debate on this topic is whether given that the social and economic conditions have so vastly improved, that some portion of the high cost should not be borne by parents.
There will, of course, be different views on this, with some people arguing for the maintenance of the present stand, and others putting the case that the Treasury should no longer bear all this cost.
We have trained a cadre of administrators who now oversee the Government, we have exposed all those who would be professional to the highest level of tertiary education. Perhaps now there is need to be more selective with the provision of completely free programmes – inclined towards those areas of study that bear directly on specific skills required by the economy.
Of course these are matters of policy to be debated in the public arena by politicians and others, so that the policy hammered out meets broad approval.
In the meantime, we urge students in particular to consider that in far larger countries, education is a cost borne not by the state, but by parents and students themselves. These students, with assistance from loans and scholarships, manage their way through university, ending up with big debts for their education into their adult life.
Every Barbadian student therefore has a duty to himself (or increasingly herself) and the state to extract maximum advantage from the provision of our free education. For given the changing social conditions and the importance of study, we cannot but agree with Minister Jones that the time is ripe for a serious public debate on education in this society.