Symmonds urges Bajans to support education reform

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kerrie Symmonds has urged Barbadians to embrace and be part of ongoing efforts to transform education given the current level of underperformance and the disengagement of young people in the system.

He told a Barbados Labour Party joint branch meeting of the St James Central and St James North constituencies last evening, held under the theme, Coming Together to Shape our Nation’s Future, that above and beyond the fact that the government was spending 25 per cent of its budget every year on education, the country must act to avert losing its young people.

“I don’t know if you’re aware, but 35 to 40 per cent of the children that we are putting into school every September when they get to age 16 . . . are now lost because they’re leaving school without that certification,” he said.

Equally concerning, Symmonds argued, are the findings of a 2016 World Economic Forum report that cautioned that six out of every 10 students entering school will not be ready for the jobs of the future.

He believes the answer to that issue partly lies in the transformation of education and rubbished the suggestion by former Education Minister Ronald Jones that the process was being rushed.

“If every year we are going to lose 30 to 40 per cent of our young people, I do not know how much slower we are to go . . . . I ask Mr Jones, ‘how many more thousands must slip between the cracks? How many more lives that should be pregnant with potential must now be fueled by a forced failure?’” the senior minister asked.

He went on to note that the island will not be able to address the coming challenges with the current education system, insisting that it must move to develop people with digital competence that meets its economic needs. (SD)