Education in Barbados has made leaps forward under the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) administration, says Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Education Senator Harcourt Husbands.
The DLP candidate for St James North was delivering the final Astor B. Watts Lecture for 2017 at the DLP’s headquarters on George Street, Belleville, St Michael, yesterday.
He listed steps the Government had taken to improve education during the party’s nine years in power, including the recent installation of photovoltaic systems at a number of primary schools, the Cultural Industries Act and the recently established Teaching Service Commission.
Husbands also spoke of the appointment of 700 teachers in the last two years, structural improvements to the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College and the introduction of Caribbean Vocational Qualifications (CVQs) at the secondary school level.
Responding to comments by Leader of the Opposition Mia Mottley in which she said the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) would end the requirement for Barbadian students having to pay tuition fees at the University of the West Indies, Husbands threw out a challenge to his opponents.
“If you have followed our legislative programme over the last five years particularly, there is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that we have taken the correct step and that we are on our way to regaining this Government whenever the next election is called,” he said.
“My challenge to them [the BLP] is to reverse all of these things here that are in the interest of Barbadians.”
Husbands acknowledged that there were challenges facing society and the school system, one being the lack of counsellors.
To combat this, he said, the Ministry of Education had received support from a charity in having six counsellors available for use across 20 primary schools.
“We need desperately to expand that,” he said. “There is no disagreement, I think, on the need to expand the services of support. Right now, we don’t have enough, but we are working to do that.”
Husbands added that the ministry employed psychologists in private practice to provide support for families identified as in need of such help. (AD)
