The Ministry of Education is being cautioned that it may be creating a headache for itself if it goes the route of implementing a junior and senior college system.
Contributing to Wednesday’s consultations on the proposals for Education Transformation at Princess Margaret Secondary School, Six Roads, St Philip, audience member Elvis Goodman noted that it was no secret that parents choose specific schools for their children to attend based on the reputation of the institution.
He suggested that the reality stands that parents will rush to get their children into specific feeder schools in order to ensure their entry into particular junior and senior colleges.
“In relation to the feeder schools, I perceive that we are seeking to solve one problem and creating another. Because the reality is that you would have an idea – you choose not to share it with the public as yet – which schools are going to be senior colleges, which ones are going to be junior colleges.
“When you share that with the public, the public will know, I want my child to go to X junior college; therefore, I am going to send my child to one of the feeder schools for X junior college. That is the reality, and that is a challenge then that you are going to have to deal with,” he said.
The two-stage secondary school structure proposed to take effect at the beginning of the 2025 academic school year will include a Junior College of Excellence (JCE) and a Senior College of Excellence (SCE).
Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw.
Director of Education Reform Dr Idamay Denny has explained that the JCE is going to be equivalent to what is now the lower school of the secondary school system and will typically have children between ages 12 to 14 years old. At the end of the JCE, students would be assessed and given a certification which would allow their completion of the first three years of secondary education in Barbados.
Meanwhile, students from ages 15 to 18 years old will attend the SCE for the last four years of their secondary school education. Denny said the SCE will have specialist programming linked to national development priorities.
The feeder schools will be primary schools from where students will go into a secondary catchment school.
However, Goodman also suggested that the junior and senior college system may allegedly result in some children experiencing psychological damage if they are sent to schools which have unfavourable reputations.
He said: “We know that certain children look forward to certain schools that they want to go to. It might be that the parents put it in their heads, but that is the reality. And you are telling the parent, therefore, that their child, who is now at QC [Queens College] in the first or second form, that they have to come to Princess Margaret. Where is the fairness in that?”
Responding to Goodman’s questions and queries, Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw stressed the need for Barbadians to change their mindsets regarding how they perceive schools.
She indicated that the cultural shift with regard to schools will only take place when “we change the resourcing across schools in Barbados”.
“And whether we go junior college or senior college of excellence, we have to ensure that there is equity,” Dr Archer-Bradshaw said. (AH)
