#BTEditorial – We hear your apologies but we still have questions

Barbados TODAY broke the story ‘Alarming Test’ in our Tuesday, October 4, edition. Our report stated that the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training administered an exam to first form students at secondary schools across the island. However, some parents complained that the test was “distasteful and invasive”.

Parents who spoke to Barbados TODAY said their children were quizzed on their sexuality, gender identity, substance use and abuse as well as personal information about their parents.

One parent lamented: “I didn’t know about it until my daughter got home, but I honestly think that some person needs to be held accountable for this. These are 11-year-old students and some of these questions, in my opinion, planted seeds in their heads. Do you think a child is thinking what gender they want to be? Asking children questions like if they think about sex often and if they take illegal drugs without their parents knowing, all of that was distasteful!”

A memo circulated to teachers stated that the pre-test, which contained close to 300 questions and lasted for two hours, had been “sanctioned by the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training and Code.org will provide the personnel to supervise the examinations.”

Our story went viral. Parents, guardians, aunties, uncles and even teachers demanded an explanation from the Ministry as to why such questions were being asked of students who only months ago were in primary school. We understood the outrage. After all, when parents leave their charges at school they are in the care and protection of the Ministry of Education.

Both the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) and the Barbados National Parent Teacher Association (BNPTA) called on the Ministry to urgently explain the circumstances which led to the test being administered in the first place.

On Wednesday night, the Inter-American Development Bank issued an apology, taking “full blame” for what transpired.

“The Inter-American Development Bank expresses regret that a survey administered by the Bank to children in the Barbados secondary school system has offended many Barbadians. The Bank sincerely apologises but stresses that no offence was intended. The questions at the centre of concern, to which the Ministry of Education had objected prior to the administering of the survey and which were inadvertently left in the paper, have been removed.”

But that was not enough to quell the public outrage. Actually, it appeared to have made matters worse.

On Thursday, the Democratic Labour Party issued a statement on the saga.

It read in part: “The Minister of Education and Chief Education Officer need to step forward immediately and explain how a so-called Computer Science test, which was filled with questions about sexuality and gender identity, was given to our first formers. The information concerning a purported computer exam which ended up being an invasion of our students’ and their parents’ privacy is very disheartening.”

Former Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley, Reverend Lucille Baird, special interest groups, callers on VOB’s Down to Brasstacks, bloggers and social media users all called for the Ministry of Education to apologise because the IDB apology was simply not enough.

By evening, Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Bradshaw issued an apology for the controversial survey administered to first-form students at five secondary schools.

“Notwithstanding the fact that the Inter-American Development Bank which administered the survey has already apologised for its failure to honour a prior commitment to the Ministry to remove the offending questions before placing them before the children, the Ministry now tenders its own apology.

She continued: “Clearly, what has transpired has left us in no doubt that we took too much for granted in not vetting the final survey. The Ministry now assures all stakeholders that the offensive scripts will now be destroyed and there will be no further use of the survey without our explicit and full scrutiny.

We, like the many outraged Barbadians, hear both the IDB and Ministry’s apologies. But, even after two apologies we are still left with many unanswered questions and a sense of unease.

Why was the test under Computer Science? To what end was the test administered? What was the objective of the test? Have any other invasive tests been administered before? Offensive questions aside, why were 10- and 11-year-olds being quizzed so intimately without their parents’ permission?

Of the 300 questions, how many were the Ministry officials “uncomfortable” with? Was consideration given to simply not administering the test? Will the Ministry provide counselling for the impressionable children who may have been traumatised during the two-hour test? How can we be sure that the information gathered will indeed be destroyed? How can we be assured that such will never happen again? How will the Ministry ensure that our minors are not used as guinea pigs unknown to their parents? Will any heads roll at either the IDB or the Ministry? Is there a link between the test and education funding provided by the Bank? What are the terms of agreement for IDB education funding?

The apologies are a good start; therefore, we commend both the IDB and the Ministry for offering them. However, we suspect that this issue is far from over since damage has been done to a section of our society that the Ministry and, by extension, all of us are tasked with protecting.