Princess Margaret to pilot new school excellence strategy

Princess Margaret Secondary School will pilot a new strategy from September aimed at transforming the school’s culture and developing a “model of excellence” that could later be rolled out at other secondary schools.

Minister of Education Transformation Chad Blackman announced the initiative as he challenged longstanding perceptions of schools and insisted that “every school has to be a school of excellence”.

Speaking during the announcement of the latest scholarship and exhibition winners, Blackman said the Princess Margaret pilot would be assessed using data before the model is taken to other schools.

2026 Exhibition winners take photo opportunity with Education officials

“I’m telling you at the Princess Margaret Secondary School come September, it will be used as a pilot for a new strategy to create a new culture at that school,” Blackman announced. “For next year, you will have them, particularly based on the data, to roll out in other schools a model of excellence. Every school has to be a school of excellence. It’s not a cliché for us; this is a lived reality.”

The Education Minister compared the initiative to his comments last year about St George Secondary School and pointed to recent examination results as evidence of improvement at several schools.

2026 scholarship winners take photo opportunity with Education Officials

He also challenged the tendency to judge students based on which secondary school they attended.

“If you ask the average Barbadian within the first five minutes of meeting them, they will ask you one question: ‘Where did you go to school?’” Blackman said. “According to that, they put you at very bright, bright, or not so bright. We have a duty to decolonise the mind of the country, and how do we do that? Through education, so that we can unleash a new potential so that these young leaders have a starting point of confidence.”

Along with the Princess Margaret pilot, Blackman announced that from September, all secondary school students will be required to participate in Community Service Learning.

Every student will be required to join a civic group, uniformed group or team sport as part of efforts to build character, national pride and civic responsibility.

Looking ahead to the 2026/2027 academic year, which the ministry is calling “The Year of Purpose”, Blackman encouraged new scholars, exhibitioners and awardees to view their achievements as an opportunity to contribute to national development rather than simply something to add to their CVs.

He pointed to Barbadian innovators such as John Redman Bovell, who developed the grapefruit in Barbados, as he reminded young people of the country’s history of innovation.

“The attainment of scholarships and exhibitions is not simply to put on a CV,” Blackman told the students and parents. “You have a duty also to shape your country because the world that you’re going into is having issues with respect to geopolitical challenges, non-communicable diseases, and climate resilience. This is your generation to change.”

Following his remarks, ministry communications consultant Gaynelle Marshall outlined the criteria for the 2026 national awards.

“Subject to regulation 78, a person is eligible for an award of a scholarship where that person satisfies the requirements of part six of the act, is attending an institution offering tertiary level education, and is not more than 20 years of age on the date on which he or she completes the requirements in the examinations,” Marshall said.

“For secondary schools pursuing CAPE, students must attain a grade 1 in all eight units of their programme; that is 32 unit courses plus the two core subjects, and a GPA of 4.0 over 80 credits.”

Turning to the criteria for students pursuing associate degrees at the Barbados Community College (BCC), Marshall said: “Students pursuing the BCC associate degree must attain a grade A in all courses in their main field of study and in the two core subjects, and a GPA of 4.0 over no less than 72 credits overall.”

She added: “For the Award of Excellence, a person is eligible where that person is over 20 years of age but under 30… and attains a grade point average of not less than 3.75 in the associate degree programme.”

Blackman congratulated the award winners and thanked parents and teachers for their support, while urging the students to use their talents to contribute to Barbados’ development.

(RR)