Prime Minister Mia Mottley says an ethics review committee will be established to prevent a repeat of the Computer Science test fiasco, as she made it clear that her Government will not support Barbados’ school children being subjected to any type of inappropriate exposure.
She said that while the Government accepted the apology from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for conducting an improper survey with students, better still needed to be done going forward and children would not be used as “guinea pigs”.
“I have said to the Minister [of Education Kay McConney] that we need to ensure going forward – and I have had this discussion with a number of people – that clearly we live in an era now where the Ministry would have to establish an ethics review committee to make sure that those things that you go into schools to talk to or to survey with respect to children pass a minimum threshold test. And we are not, therefore, allowing persons to just feel that this is open season for our children,” Mottley said.
“We are not supportive of that and that is why I have said to the Ministry that the Inter-American Development Bank must ensure that the situation is corrected as a matter of urgency. I thank them for their quick and rapid apology and I say to them and to all others that Barbadian schoolchildren are not to be guinea pigs for people in circumstances where it is inappropriate and where you are seeking to expose them to things that are especially age-inappropriate. The ethics review committee I believe will help the ministry manage and govern that process in a more effective way.”
The Prime Minister spoke about the issue on Friday afternoon during the official signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Barbados and the Republic of China at Ilaro Court, to construct a new national stadium.
The test saga, which was brought to light by Barbados TODAY in a story published on Tuesday under the headline Alarming Test, stemmed from the fact that first-form students at five of the island’s secondary schools had to complete a survey, as part of a Computer Science test, that included invasive questions in a survey that made many of them uncomfortable.
The questions related to their sexuality, gender, mental state, and their home circumstances, among other areas.
The IDB and the Ministry of Education have since apologised for their roles in the scenario, with the Washington-based financial institution which administered the test accepting full responsibility. The Bank admitted that even though the Ministry of Education had objected to certain questions being included on the test, it was still disseminated to students in its original format.
“I accept the apology of the Inter-Development Bank with respect to the survey but I really regret that the survey felt the need to do the high wire act, especially after the Ministry of Education expressed to them their concerns and that those questions should have been taken out,” Prime Minister Mottley said.
The pretest was part of a project being executed by the IDB, in which American-based organisation Code.org is providing a computer science curriculum to train teachers, and consulting on the implementation of the curriculum in schools and scaling of the programme across Barbados.
Code.org has since distanced itself from the pretest, saying it did not sanction the questions or organise or provide personnel to supervise the examinations as was erroneously stated in a memo circulated ahead of the Computer Science test.
Since the situation was brought to light, it has also been revealed that parents only learned about the test being conducted on Monday when their children informed them after they had completed it. Many of them said they were uncomfortable about the questions asked.
Government has been severely criticised over the matter, with several union officials and political and social commentators suggesting that neither the IDB’s apology nor that from Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw exonerated local officials.
morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb
