Veteran educator Jeff Broomes will not support the cancellation of any major examinations on the academic calendar.
Broomes said the leaders of two local teachers’ unions calling for the cancellation of the CXC examinations and the Barbados Secondary School Entrance Examinations (BSSEE) because of an increase in local coronavirus cases is a kneejerk reaction that has the potential to lead to a blockage in the school system, depriving four and five-year-olds the opportunity to begin their school life next school year.
“We have to use our intellect to make sure we seek solutions. I do not support cancelling CXC; neither do I support cancelling Common Entrance. If we had systems in place where we could have automatic transfer that would be okay, but we don’t. Just block it? No, I don’t agree with that.
“We need to sit down, and reason, and think about what are the implications of that decision. The implications as far as I am concerned are not good. There would be a blockage in the system. Children who are four and five years old wouldn’t be able to go to school. And those in fourth and fifth form would not be able to move on to sixth form or university or whatever.
“The school system could only hold so many people; we only have so much space. Children in fifth form go out and children come into first form. Children in Class 4 go out and children come in at the junior level,” he said.
The former principal said teachers, education authorities, and other stakeholders must sit at the roundtable and find solutions that would help students to prepare for the significant examinations.
Broomes said he sees electronic and print media as major solutions.
In an interview with Barbados TODAY this week, Redman contended that both students and teachers have lost too much time due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Redman argued that because of delays caused by the pandemic, teachers have been unable to complete the syllabus; a reality which she said would put students at a disadvantage if the examinations are held as normal in May/June even if they were postponed and held two months later.
But Broomes contended: “This is January; let us give the children all the support that we can to get them to where they have to be at. I am not throwing up my hand in the air and saying that the children are not ready because I think we should do whatever we can to get the children ready.
“We cannot only be using online teaching for which the teachers are not properly trained, but we can do other things to help children like television, the newspaper. Every house in this country has a radio,” he said.
Meanwhile, President of the Barbados Union of Teachers’ (BUT) Pedro Shepherd who called on Government to cancel the 2021 edition of the BSSEE said the decision needs to be taken in light of the fact that the new school term has been delayed due to a spike in COVID-19 cases.
Shepherd, who said that the 11-Plus students scheduled to take the annual examination would not have enough time to prepare, is also advocating for the cancellation of the 2020-2021 academic year.
However, Broomes said that there is no need to cancel the BSSEE because the students should have started preparing for it in classes two and three.
“Two years ago I did Homework Action Line on TV which is the entire Common Entrance programme. We can do things on the radio; we can do things in the newspapers because I am not one to think about what the problems are, I look at the solutions to overcome these struggles,” Broomes said.
“What is going on is not a Bajan problem or a West Indian problem, this is a worldwide problem. Let us use our ingenuity, let us use our education the country gave us, to get our children in a better position,” he added. (anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb)
