#BTEditorial – There is a cost to “free” education

We repeatedly say that education is free in Barbados. Truth is, while it is free to those who benefit from it, it comes at a cost. The Government, by way of taxes paid by citizens and other resources, foots the over $300 million bill annually.

According to the Financial and Budgetary Expenditure 2021, Government approved $318 million to be spent on education. In a year where our health care bill has skyrocketed due to the intense battle against COVID-19, that $318 million is a large part of a decreasing pie.

We, like many Barbadians who voiced their opinion, were taken aback when the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) president Pedro Shepherd revealed that early in the school term, several devices that were to be handed to new students were returned unusable, resulting in some being forced to do without in the initial days of the new school year.

The report of October 6, carried in Barbados TODAY stated that dozens of technological devices loaned to students over the last academic year had been returned either damaged or destroyed, and despite parents signing agreements to cover the cost of repairs or replacement, many of them are apparently unable to foot the bill.

“A lot of the excuses are that a child was going down the stairs and it dropped and got damaged, or somebody was pulling it from somebody and it got damaged, somebody was doing something and got water on it, and you really cannot, in some cases, ask some of the parents to replace them,” Shepherd explained.

“There are some who would willingly return the cracked one and ask if they could repair it, but then there are some who say they can’t afford to repair it, but would expect a second device.”

In the same article echoing the union leader’s sentiment was principal of the St Bartholomew Primary School, Anthea Gill, who said the damaged devices are posing a challenge to other students hoping to use them.

“With devices, again, it is not so much that we don’t get a supply from the ministry,” she said. “We did, probably from the last school year, but then when you want to give them out again so many of them are damaged that you have issues with being able to give them to another child.

“Schools generally would have tried to emphasise to the students and the parents that we are not giving them to you, it’s a loan, but sometimes if they don’t hear it from other official sources that this is not yours to keep, then they might begin to think that the school is not saying what it really is.”

It was revealed that parents had signed agreements stipulating that if the devices were damaged they would have to pay. So, something has to give.

We cannot have some students putting others at disadvantage because of wanton destruction and reckless – just because they are “free”. The devices must be treated and seen as an extension of the textbook loan scheme. With that scheme, if you do not pay for books loaned in the previous term, then you are ineligible to get all your resources needed for the upcoming term.

Parents and students must view the devices as school property and understand that there is a cost to repairing or replacing the devices.

There was a time when the National Library Service had buses traversing from one school to another daily. Back then, there was the joy of boarding the bus and choosing a book to keep for about a week to read. That book was solely in the care of the student who borrowed it.

If there were ‘dog-ears’ on the book, if the book was soiled by lunch, if the book got wet or damaged, the student was charged fees that had to be paid in order to receive another book to borrow and read.

Where the book was too badly damaged, the entire book had to be paid for or replaced. Those who benefitted from the National Library Service school runs learnt from early that there was a penalty and cost attached to not taking care of the book.

These devices are modern-day books and the same thought and policies have to be applied. Most of these devices are even costlier than a book in these times. Parents and students must understand that their irresponsibility comes at a cost, and that the cost cannot be passed on to Government. Government has the task of looking out for those less fortunate. Those whose parents are unable to assist financially.

Ironically, successive governments, politicians, educators and parents have all spread the gospel that: “Education is free in Barbados”. Perhaps now in these trying economic times the full reality of that gospel must be told. Maybe now is the time to let our students know that while education is free to them it comes at an immense cost to all of us.