UPDATED: Okay, I finished the post. Better late than never
I’ve heard it myself over the years and I’ve also repeated it to visitors: Barbados boasts one of the highest rates of literacy (or should that read one of the highest literacy rates?) in the world. Is this still the case, can our island still afford to make this claim? I find myself thinking about this after reading ’Exam markdown,’ an article in the June 15th edition of The Nation newspaper.
(begin snip)
“THOSE WHO WROTE this year’s Barbados Secondary Schools’ Entrance Exam performed “slightly below” last year’s students. With decreases in the national average in English and maths, Minister of Education Anthony Wood at a Press conference yesterday expressed concern about the overall performances in the mathematics paper, in spite of improvements in Section 3, and again with Section B – the comprehension passages of the English paper. He noted that a number of strategies had been employed in the classroom to address the problem areas in both subjects.”
(end snip)
There is no arguing that English and Mathematics are important subjects. In fact, they create a critical foundation required for further study in other areas. However, simply churning out the human equivalent of word processors and calculators is not good enough.
I never had any reason to think about our educational system, until one day a few years back. I was sitting in a class and the lecturer went on a slight detour and mentioned something about the fact that our system was only interested in producing ‘professionals.’ In other words, not people who are interested in starting and running their own businesses
The whole idea of entrepreneurship appears to be largely ignored in Barbados. Although there is an organization that was setup to encourage entrepreneurship (the name of which I cannot recall), this was only a recent development. Risk probably plays a big factor as well. Barbadians appear to be afraid of taking chances. We avoid risk instead of embracing and dealing with it. We seem content and even thankful to have ‘just enough.’
This attitude and culture obviously has its disadvantages. Forget about the whole Black/White business ownership issue. Instead, focus on the foreign ownership of businesses in Barbados. A perfect example of this is the takeover of BS&T by the Trinidad & Tobago giant, Neal & Massy.
I know that Barbados can ill-afford to be an island from a financial and investment point of view. Isolated and detached is not the way forward in today’s global economy. Outside investment has its advantages and Barbados is an ideal country for this because of its economic and political stability. Furthermore, as we move towards the CSME (Caribbean Single Market and Economy), we as Barbadians must become comfortable with these changes or else, we’ll be left by the roadside.
So, what can we do to change this? I’m no expert, but I think we should at least start teaching and encouraging our children to take more risks, especially when it comes to the business world. If we don’t, our children will live out their lives as consumers. Also, the profits that foreign owned companies earn from us will leave our shores and return to their home countries. Never to be seen, or heard from again.
