Morris: Push stem subjects

A seasoned educator is calling on Government to include certain subject areas when it comes to awarding scholarships and exhibitions.
Ambassador to CARICOM Robert “Bobby” Morris threw out a challenge to officials, parents, teachers and children in Barbados to look at “stem areas” – science and technology, engineering and mathematics– when they are looking at educational pursuits.
“We are not saying that every subject is not important, that is not the issue at all. History is important, religious knowledge is important, French, Spanish, any of them. But I contend that once you’re at the stage that Barbados has reached [and] carry it further, it’s not going to be done by the persons who specialize in the areas that I mentioned just now,” the historian argued.
“I know that the engineers, the builders, the wealth creators and managers, those are the ones who are going to make Barbados a more productive place in the future. And like you, I’m thinking about where my children will be working and where my grandchildren will be working. And there has to be a stimulus that takes us towards creating, designing, modelling, building, and I believe that the stem subjects are the ones that will get us there,” Morris said, adding that the country also needed “practical” people with vocational skills.
He said he was “saddened” that there were no local children in Barbadian academic and inventor Cardinal Warde’s mentorship programme. (YB)