Create new opportunities, urges Inniss

ONE member of Government is adamant that greater focus needs to be placed on creating new opportunities for study, and by extension business to help drive the growth and development of Barbados.

Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, Donville Inniss, was speaking to The Barbados Advocate recently as he lamented that too often governments get caught up with thinking in five-year terms and then, he said, they are “prone to be too short-sighted” in their approach to development.

“Those children who will be doing the 11-Plus soon, we have to think of what kind of opportunities must present to them in ten years’ time when they are out of university, so we just can’t think in terms of the next elections. Yes there are some short-term issues we have to focus on, but we have to create new opportunities for this country in the ICT world for example and really foster a greater level of innovation and entrepreneurship, so that those kids who are 11 years today, will in ten years’ time feel that they can not only own a piece of the rock, but own a business, or that they can be the greatest innovator in technology, the sciences or agriculture - but that planning process has to begin now,” he maintained.

Inniss is therefore adamant that the educational system has a major part to play in creating opportunities for this type of advancement, but he contended that they cannot do it alone.

“I think we have a good educational system, I consider myself fortunate to have received a solid education in Barbados first at St. Catherine’s Primary School, Harrison College, Community College and the University of the West Indies, and it is that education that has taken me around the world… but our educational system must not just be seen as one that is traditional, but one that is able to respond to the needs of society, a changing society,” he said.

Minister Inniss mentioned that education is faced with a difficult task of being expected on one hand to be an agent of change, and to also be able to respond to the needs of society. With that in mind, he contended that entrepreneurship and innovation which will help drive the economy forward now and in the future, must go beyond the formal school system. To that end, he is suggesting that the future of such is also dependent on how society raises future generations.

“If we do not encourage our children to think for themselves and to challenge the system, they then become just those who can read, write and regurgitate; but they will not become very creative. They will not be thinkers, and will just be maintaining the status quo,” he contended. (JRT)

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