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The Government is working to build a stronger and more modern and prosperous future. The future of the Bahamas, however, starts today, with the education of the country’s youth. How would you describe the Bahamian educational system today?
As a government, we are working to build a Stronger Bahamas. That is, a Bahamas that is safer, more prosperous, and more modern – which are the three pillars of this initiative. The Stronger Bahamas program was put in place to help our government to better listen to, and communicate with, everyday ordinary Bahamians, and to ensure our people know what government and non-government programs and services are available to them. It is built upon extensive qualitative and quantitative research, and targets all Bahamians, no matter their political party stripe. The main message is that we all have a role to play in building a better country, and we must work together to do this.
Safety and prosperity are the top two issues for our citizens, but a modern education system is seen as key to achieving both of those goals. As someone in one of our Stronger Bahamas public consultations put it: “Education is the underpinning of a safe and prosperous nation. We cannot have a Stronger Bahamas without a major focus on education. If we improve education, both crime and unemployment will fall in line.”
The Bahamas’ educational system is going through a lot of positive changes right now. Like many other countries, our greatest challenge is our graduation rate. For the last two decades, the graduation rate in our public schools has been around 50%. If we are to have a Stronger Bahamas, we must ensure that our youth not only stay in school, but that they also receive a quality education and are truly prepared for the workforce when they graduate.
Last year, we instituted a standardized national high school diploma, which sets out academic requirements that includes academic achievement, attendance, punctuality, job readiness training and community service. It also stipulates that parents/guardians must attend at least one PTA meeting during the school year for the last three years. Our priority is to ensure that students and administrators are aware of all requirements, which are equally important for building a well-rounded child.
The goal of the newly introduced standardized system is to increase the graduation rate to 85% over the next 15 years.
Our government has a tremendous commitment to education, right across Cabinet and up to the Prime Minister. We have had a significant push over the last few years to make our educational system more relevant so that it not only addresses the interests of our children, but is also more in line with our national needs. Some other changes include:
As a Ministry and as a Government, we are committed to building a Stronger Bahamas, and a key pillar of this is modernizing our education system to ensure our youth have the knowledge and tools they need for success.
In 2013 you introduced a Political Committee for “Shared Vision For Education 2030” to develop ideas that will transition into a strategic, “bi-partisan” or “Bahamian” plan, which will govern education in The Bahamas for the next 15-20 years. Could you explain to the readers of HBR the significance of this Plan?
Governments must govern. But there is always the challenge of continuity if the governing party changes, or the Minister of Education changes. With this in mind, early on in my ministerial post, I set up a political committee for education, which is comprised of past ministers of education from both political parties. We also set up another educational committee of stakeholders, which includes both the public and private sector to advise us on a policy position for education for the next 15 years. My thinking on this was that education is too important for our country, and we had to take the politics out of it. The Leader of the Opposition agreed, and appointed past ministers of education and the opposition’s education representative in parliament to be a part of that committee. We are at the point now where we may have a little difference here or there but we don’t talk about education the way that we used – as something that defines us politically. Over the past two years, we have been working on a draft report that we have agreed on and the final report should be coming out before the end of this year.
Since being appointed as Minister, I have put the structure in place to enforce and measure the policy to ensure that we have a clear and concise goal that is communicated to everyone within the system to begin a cultural shift when it comes to education. My hope and my expectation is that when I am no longer the Minister of Education, the work we have done and the culture change we are implementing here will not change when the government does.
Where does your will to improve the education system come from?
My mother was a public school teacher and I have been fortunate that my father is a successful businessman. At the end of the day, I have always had difficulty accepting the fact that I was afforded the best education possible because my father could afford it. So I have always realized the injustice and the inequity in that and that there is a need to level the playing field for all Bahamians. I wanted to give hope to those kids who ordinarily would not think that there’s any hope in regards to them continuing their education. Now that we have set the high school standard, these children need to have a clear understanding that once you accomplish this you can go to college, and your socioeconomic background has no impact on that opportunity, nor your ability to succeed and contribute to the positive development of the country.
Your Ministry has “responsibility for all educational institutions in the Bahamas.” You have been instrumental to the establishment of, for example, a national standard of high school graduation, a data-driven unit that tracks student performance, a governing body that standardizes preschool education and a training center for education professionals. These are all significant milestones – which ones are you most proud of and why?
There are two programs that I am most proud of: the Marjory Davis Institute for Special Education, and greater scholarship opportunities for public school students.
Special education has been an area of the system that really hasn't gotten the attention it needs. Not everyone understands what it means and how important it is to have a clear understanding of the fact that some children learn differently. About 25-35% of the student population doesn’t learn the traditional way, and those kids and their teachers are regularly frustrated because there is a lack of understanding of how to help these children progress. So we spent $3+ million to renovate and put all of the equipment into this institution, which is now a premiere institute in the region when it comes to special education, research and training. We have gone a long way in closing that gap of students who fall through the cracks because we don’t understand how they learn. We still have a lot of work and teacher training to do but at least now we are recognizing this challenge does exist and we have an institute that we are using as a research base to inform our policy decision, which is critical.
The second area is the advancement of scholarship opportunities for public school students. I have been on this quest since I became Education Minister because I realized that we give out grants every year to students and although public school students represent 75% of the student population, they only receive 7% of the scholarship grant money to go overseas. We set about entering into MOUs with colleges and universities around the world, particularly in the United States and Canada, where we would use our grant money and match it with the college so students who otherwise could not afford to go would now have a full scholarship. This year, there were 30 scholarship recipients and for all of them but one, they were the first members of their family to go to college. That has really brought me a lot of satisfaction and the success of this program keeps me focused on the goal to improve our education system for the youth of The Bahamas. There is no doubt in my mind that education is at the core of our sustainability and improving our economic outcome, production and efficiency and is the cornerstone of building a Stronger Bahamas.
Given The Bahamas is an archipelago; the Department of Education in The Bahamas faces “the task of providing education for a school population scattered over wide areas.” What strategies are you implementing to create more equal opportunities in education throughout the country?
We have been able to provide equal and greater opportunities to all students across the archipelago through advancements in technology and distance learning. In the first two years of my mandate, we spent approximately $5 million on technology, which was the largest investment ever made to the public school system in technology. It allowed us to link all our junior and senior high schools. The whole thrust of that was to use technology particularly in islands where you a school with 20-30 students and don't have teachers for all subjects. We now have the capacity and capability where we can stream instruction through the Internet.
We are also getting ready to launch our Bahamas Learning Channel, which is the first 24-hour learning channel in The Bahamas. That is another means by which we will use technology to have instruction during and after school. Our trained teachers have filmed instructions for subjects that range from chemistry to physics to mathematics to English. As those are recorded they will either be streamed live at a certain time and/or stored on our webpage. So any child can go to our webpage and click on the subject they are struggling with and there will be a tutorial. This is critical in our country because parents may not be able to help kids with their homework. We know that parents’ education levels are the greatest indicator of the educational outcome of the child so we again try to close the gap, raise the standard and bring equality across the system. The challenge of being an archipelagic nation has also provided us with an opportunity to use technology. At the end of the day I want The Bahamas to be a model of what can happen because if we can do it in our country, anyone can do it in theirs.
Minister, to conclude the interview, Harvard Business Review’s readers include many of the world’s most influential business and political figures. What final message would you like to send to send them about The Bahamas and your Ministry?
The Bahamas is a very stable climate politically. In regards to education, we are doing a lot to improve our system and I think that as the years go by, you are going to see it continue to improve. We are working every day to build a Stronger Bahamas for our citizens. We have made significant improvements to our educational system, and I expect that they will continue to happen.
We know that having a skilled and well-educated population will assist with any development, whether it’s investment internally or foreign direct investment. There’s also a great acceptance and understanding on our part of the role of our technical institute, BTVI, to the extent where I have increased the funding for scholarship grants over the last three years. We have seen an increase in enrolment of 35% at the institute. Having the populous with an appreciation for the importance of technical and vocational training, and with the current Government committed to the future success of BTVI and its students, I believe this bodes well for us moving forward. Completing high school and understanding what’s there for you once you have graduated in order to prepare you for whatever profession you want, I believe is key to an engaged and successful student population. We are preparing our population for opportunities that we see coming in the future and are ensuring that The Bahamas continues to grow stronger and remains a stable climate for investment.
