Teachers Concerned About Proposed BSSEE Abolition

Some teachers have voiced their concerns about the proposed abolition of the Barbados Secondary School’s Entrance Examination.

A number of them spoke last night during a virtual town hall meeting by the Barbados Union of Teachers entitled, “Honest Conversations on Education Reform, Implications for Students, Parents, School, Society, and the Economy”.

While stating that plans are yet to be revealed to them, Former teacher and Principal, Dr. Hyacinth Harris said that adequate time must be given to both teachers and students to prepare for any transition, and believes that any such move by next year may be too soon.

“It is important to note that in making any decision regarding the replacement for the Common Entrance, as we commonly call it; a significant amount of consideration must be given to the students. To date the public is unaware of what the alternative will be and which cohort of students will first be affected. Clearly, the lack of publicized information even as we approach the close of the Common Entrance 2022 would suggest that it would be disingenuous to impose any new assessment approach on the next cohort of Class 4 students.”

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Voice of: Former teacher and Principal, Dr. Hyacinth Harris

Teacher and Executive member of the BUT, Tara Durant believes that the proposed introduction of academies for excellence may call for the government to increase salaries for teachers.

“So teachers are responsible for the country’s primary national resource. Should they not be compensated for that? In this process we can envisage that they will be a need for retraining and upgrading of qualifications. There may need to be retraining right across the board, depending on how these changes are implemented and actually necessitates salary adjustments. Other territories, there’s a strategic partnership with the business sector so that when they choose specialized subjects, those students will come over and directly benefit the economy. Is that what we’re going to look to do so that therefore, the further funding wouldn’t go into the academies of excellence, would be cost effective to the government?”

(audio included)

Voice of: Teacher and Executive member of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT), Tara Durant

Meantime, President of the BUT, Rudy Lovell also voiced his concerns, noting that any fundamental changes to the education system must be carefully considered.

“Reform is not a quick fix. In fact, the … research is suggesting that we should actually be engaged in transformation rather than reformation. We need to understand that the process of changing a culture is time intensive. There are no quick fixes and we have to debunk that the idea that we can put a timeline of two years, two years is woefully inadequate to do any type of fundamental change or rather the type of fundamental change that is required for this educational system, and because we are starting on that premise, I think we are in for a very bumpy ride.”