BARBADOS’ EDUCATION system is outdated and is not addressing the needs of the children, officer-in-charge of UNICEF, Violet Speek-Warnery, has warned.
While Barbados should be commended for taking a leadership role in empowering youth and adolescents, there was still “a ways to go”, she said.
Speek-Warnery was speaking with the media yesterday after the launch of the State Of The World’s Children Report 2011: Adolescence – An Age Of Opportunity, at UN House, Marine Gardens, Christ Church.
“In Barbados, there are youth in situations of poverty with the increasing food and oil prices and this is affecting families,” she said.
“Tourism is down; people are losing jobs and this is also affecting adolescents. At the same time, your schools haven’t changed in years and so addressing social and developmental skills is an issue,” she added.
Speek-Warnery said UNICEF had been working with Government in utilizing different behavioural change mechanisms as well as different teaching methodologies in schools.
She said it was clear the entire education system in the Caribbean was no longer conducive to providing the opportunity for adolescents to engage their skills and analytical thinking.
Speek-Warnery said the major thrusts of the report were to gather social data and to make world leaders aware of the need to address the needs and challenges of the 10-19 adolescent age group rather than in only the 15-29 youth age group.
In his feature address at the launch, Minister of Youth Stephen Lashley said a National Youth Policy was “at an advanced stage” and would be completed by next month.
“The growing national movement to infuse young people into decision-making roles in communities and organizations has begun,” he said.
“Programmes such as the National Youth Forum have already come on stream,” he added.
“As a result of this initiative and other consultations, we are at a very advanced stage in concluding a National Youth Policy for Barbados.
“Already a draft of that policy has been completed and I’m sure that following further consultations we will be able to complete the National Youth Policy within the next few weeks and of course it will then be taken to Cabinet for approval, prior to being laid in the Parliament of Barbados,” he said.
Lashley said there was also a mentorship programme being developed aimed at taking young people “to the next level”.
