#BTSpeakingOut – Terrifying implications

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.

It continues to alarm me how the fiasco of the infliction of the IDB Survey on little Barbadian children – an infliction that was facilitated MORE THAN ONCE by the Ministry of Education, mind you – has become a football in the pro and anti Comprehensive Sexuality Education debate.

This debate, while not unimportant, has served as a distraction from the very necessary public-focusing on the most egregious conduct, poor organisation, and deeply disturbing lack of Transparency and Accountability that have been exposed in the Ministry of Education.  Most unfortunate.

Tell me, how can any country which wishes to operate above the level of “Banana Republic” afford to lose focus on the critical principles of Transparency and Accountability as they relate to the operations of government ministries?

Let’s not be confused.  Research has to be done!  Crucial policy decisions that will impact our future need to be informed by the important information/data captured by research.

There is nothing inherently wrong, wicked, or sinister with research.  But there are established ethical rules that govern the conduct of undertaking research on human subjects.

And what was facilitated by the Ministry of Education undeniably transgresses a great many of these rules.

What should be of primary and immediate importance to the citizens of Barbados are the following:

1. No information regarding The Survey and its administration was given to any parent/guardian prior to its infliction on little Barbadian first-formers;

2. The informed consent of Barbadian parents/guardians was contemptuously ignored – clearly Barbadian parents were deemed undeserving of this right and, as such, informed parental consent was never even sought in the world’s newest republic, Barbados;

3. The Survey required little Barbadian children (minors!) to identify themselves.  There was absolutely no anonymity! (This most important point is deliberately ignored by too many apologists);

4. The Ministry of Education’s hierarchy, at its Press Conference on Saturday October 8th, 2022, admitted that, as a consequence of this infliction of the IDB Survey which it facilitated, 733 students of 5 secondary schools had suffered what none other than our Child Rights Advocate, Faith Marshall-Harris, has defined as a “violation”.

These statistics are not accurate!  And, what is so much worse, these statistics were KNOWN to be NOT accurate!  Because less than 24 hours later – on the Brass Tacks radio programme of Sunday October 9th, 2022 – the Chief Education Officer, in the presence of the Minister of Education, confessed that this same survey had been inflicted on little Barbadian children months before, in June 2022!  This is a most serious dimension of this entire fiasco which cannot be overlooked and/or should not be swept under any carpet;

5. The Ministry is yet to deny the many reports that this survey was inflicted on little Barbadian children even before June 2022 – which could put the number of little Barbadian minor children violated by the survey into the thousands;

6. The Ministry’s own peddled tale acknowledging its incredible delinquency constitutes an unbelievably horrendous dereliction of duty, perpetrated more than once, and a stinging indictment of members of the Ministry’s hierarchy. How on earth can what they allowed be dismissed as a “simple mistake” as some cynical partisans are attempting to propagate?;

7. Up to this point in time, not one head has rolled for this inexcusable dereliction which has shattered the public’s trust in this Kay McConney-led Ministry! Unbelievably, the public is being told to just chill out, just keep quiet, and simply entrust the urgent mission of regaining public trust to the same hierarchy which has utterly demolished that trust in the first place. Most absurd.

Taking all of the above into serious consideration, and with regard to the principles of Transparency and Accountability, can the public say that by keeping the Ministry’s of Education delinquent hierarchy in tact, the right thing is being done?

It has been reported in the press since October 12, 2022, that an investigation into aspects of this fiasco has been initiated by the Data Protection Commissioner and her department.

But that same report quoted a spokesperson for the Commissioner as saying that the department was going to bring its “comments” and “advice” not to any parent or guardian of the violated little Barbadian minor children, but to the officials of the Ministry of Education!

Is the right thing being done?

I wonder if this matter of what is right is even one that has much relevance in a republic that has become so alarmingly partisan that it is Party Allegiance which more and more, with each passing fiasco, seems to determine one’s response to things.

The implications of this are truly terrifying.
– Lincoln Samuel