Camp coordinator says children less fit, struggling to reason

After two decades working with the National Council on Substance Abuse’s youth camp, Makeada Bourne says she has never seen children so physically unfit, or so unable to reason through simple problems.

The Substance Abuse Prevention Officer and social worker, who coordinates the NCSA’s Project SOFT transitional camp, said that over her 20 years with the programme, she has observed a troubling shift in the readiness and resilience of students entering secondary school.

Project SOFT (Safeguarding Our Future Today) is a one-week residential camp targeting children who recently completed the 11-Plus exam. It blends drug education with life skills training, emotional wellness, and behaviour shaping to prepare students for the next stage of their education.

“Twenty years ago, when I joined the camp, you found a much more fit child … ready to go outside, to run around, to play,” Bourne told Barbados TODAY. “Now, 20 years later, some of them might be small, but they’re not fit.… There’s that pushback like, ‘Do we really have to go outside?’”

While campers eventually warm up to physical activities, Bourne said the shift toward sedentary lifestyles, especially screen time and video games, is affecting children’s development.

“I was saying to one child, ‘if you just play video games, then only your thumbs’ will be fit. We gotta get the rest of your body fit to match your thumbs,” she said.

Bourne is equally concerned about a growing difficulty among children to logically reason and solve problems. She recounted how some campers struggled with basic hands-on puzzles.

“You give them a 20-piece puzzle, and there’s a challenge to figure it out. That ability to reason has declined,” she said. “We have to really look at how we are teaching children to think and solve problems so that when they grow up, they can meet challenges and not just give up.”

She said it’s now common to see children abandoning tasks prematurely: “They’ll say ‘I done with this’, and they’re not even trying.”

Bourne’s concern comes as education officials ramp up efforts to improve literacy and foundational learning across the school system, with several initiatives aimed at strengthening critical thinking and comprehension from the early years.

While careful not to comment on curriculum reform, Bourne stressed the importance of brain-stimulating activities like word searches, drafts, chess, Sudoku, and spelling – both at home and in social environments.

“I’m one of those who believe, as a country, we all have to work together. Children are not isolated in the home,” she said. “They socialise in different areas… so we all have to play our part to help that individual grow up to be the best person they can be.”

shannamoore@barbadostoday.bb