Ministry seeks to raise minimum school-leaving age

By Emmanuel Joseph

Students in Barbados will have the opportunity spend more time in school if needed, if ministers agree to proposals to raise the minimum school-leaving age from 16 to 18, the Director of the Education Reform Unit, Dr Idamay Denny said as the education ministry began public consultations on its planned reforms.

The disclosure came Wednesday night at the Alexandra Secondary School in St Peter in response to the retired principal of the Government Industrial School, Erwin Leacock, at the first education transformation public consultation.

Dr Denny said: “We are actually proposing that all children be allowed to continue school until age 18 because we recognise that the only children who are given the opportunity to go to school that long are the ones who are writing CAPE [Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination]. Those are the ones who right now we consider to be the most capable. And they are given that opportunity, and the ones who really need a leg up are not. 

“We have children who want to do things other than CAPE and very often they have to go and look to see if they can find something in SJPI [Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology] or the Barbados Community College. They may want to continue their CVQs [Caribbean Vocational Qualification] in schools. And we are saying, if children want to continue things like CVQs at the level of the school, then give them the opportunity.”

Dr Denny said that the Ministry of Education also recognised that there are some children who would need more teaching time because they would not have achieved what most others have, owing to their level of attainment by age 16.  

Retired principal of the Government Industrial School, Erwin Leacock.

“They are still trying to get their basic qualifications,” she said. “And we feel, if they are given the opportunity to go to 18, then parents would go along with schools that say, ‘look, I don’t want to put the burden of writing eight subjects on this child… [he or she] does not have the capacity to do eight subjects at one time. But if we let him do four, he will do those four and then he has more time that he can complete some more’.

“So, we are making the recommendation that we change the school leaving age…and remember, the legislation is being addressed as well. So, one of the things you will see addressed in the new legislation will speak to the school leaving age to cover children from three years old to children up to 18 years old.

“The public would agree with the ministry that this is a sound recommendation which is not expected to be controversial, she said.

In his contribution, retired principal Leacock observed that the Child Justice Bill and the Child Protection Bill define a child as someone under the age of 18.

Speaking of his years of experience as the principal of a juvenile reform school where he said he dealt with “all the troublemakers”, he warned the ministry that any move to extend the school-leaving age could spell greater challenges for teachers.

He told the ministry officials they should hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

“In terms of reimagining education… if it is that the compulsory education is now under 18, that age cohort between 16 and 18…preparations have to be made for them. There are some children you are counting the days that they get 16 because you want them out,” asserted Leacock, who was the first coordinator of the Edna Nicholls Centre, a school for at-risk youth.

Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw said there will be four other public consultations seeking input from the public on the ministry’s proposals for educational transformation which is targeted for September 2025.

She said all the contributions will be collated and placed in a final draft to be presented to ministers for their approval.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb

Editor’s note: The first paragraph of this story was corrected to clarify that the proposal for the minimum school-leaving age to be increased to 18 is to allow those who need more time in school to do so, and it will not be mandatory for all students to stay in school until the age of 18.