Education chief defends teachers amid extra lessons criticism

Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw has defended teachers against claims of inadequate commitment, insisting that most educators go “above and beyond” to support students, even as concerns grow over the heavy reliance on private lessons ahead of the 11-Plus examination.

Rejecting the idea that teachers are generally underperforming, she suggested the strong reliance on private lessons is largely driven by parents’ desire to secure placement at so-called “premium schools”.

“What I do know is that because some parents place a premium on certain schools in Barbados, they go all out to make sure that their children can have access to certain schools, and that is the reason why some of our parents will seek lessons for their children. I will not stand here and say that all of our teachers across the system are not teaching as they should. That would be very disingenuous of me.”

She maintained that educators have been giving more than the required effort to support their students: “I can tell you that the teachers across Barbados generally give 110 per cent. They’re committed to the children of Barbados.”

Many teachers go beyond the call of duty to assist their students, Dr Archer-Bradshaw insisted.

“The teachers across the system generally have the children of Barbados at heart, and they go above and beyond to ensure that our children receive the knowledge that they’re supposed to receive. They go beyond to make sure that they try to cultivate attitudes that are required as well, and that they can have certain skills that will take them to life.”

She highlighted the extra effort by educators, especially in preparation for the 11-plus examination.

“Several teachers from Classes One, Two, Three, and even Four, spend extra time, weekends, Easter vacations, trying to make sure that concepts are consolidated.”

At the same time, the chief education officer acknowledged that not all teachers are performing at the same level and that some require additional support:

“There are some teachers who may not be performing at his or her optimum. Where that is the case, we have a complement of education officers who go in to provide the requisite support because it may not be because they’re willingly not performing, but it may be that they need some additional resources and support.”

“So we have additional education officers who are going into schools every day, along with master teachers and coaches, to help these teachers to reach their maximum potential so that our children can reach their maximum potential.”

Dr Archer-Bradshaw also told journalists that the ministry plans to introduce a quality assurance framework as part of the wider education transformation agenda.

“That will help us to define the standards for good teaching, define the standards for a good leadership as well as good schools, and when this quality assurance framework comes into play, and we’re expecting it to come into play within the next year or so, this will indeed help us to move on to the trajectory of being the number one education system in the world.”

She also defended the administration’s move to introduce teacher licensing:

“When you look at licensing across the world, not only for teachers, it ensures that in the particular profession, the individuals within that profession are operating to certain standards. It ensures that those professionals are always on the cutting edge. We want our Barbadian teachers to be on the cutting edge because, as we said, we want to be the number one education system in the world in six years. If we want that to happen, then licensing, in our view, is the way to go.”

The education chief expressed a willingness to continue discussions with teachers’ unions on the issue:

“We have regular meetings with the Barbados Union of Teachers as well as other unions. Of course, I will wait until we have that meeting and we will have a robust discussion as to the benefits of licensing, the disadvantages, and see where we can meet each other halfway or whole way.”

(LG)