The 2016 Scholarship and Exhibition awardees and their parents during a meeting held at the Ministry of Education’s headquarters yesterday.
Embrace post-secondary education
Sat, 08/20/2016 - 12:00am
The Minister of Education wants school-leavers to embrace the opportunities available to them at institutions such as the Barbados Community College (BCC) and the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic (SJPP).
“We would want more of our students not to exit school at age 16, but continue their studies…Sixteen is a relatively young age,” stressed the Hon. Ronald Jones.
He made the call yesterday as he met with the 2016 Barbados Scholarship and Exhibition awardees in the main conference room of the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation.
Last week, the Ministry announced that there were 27 awardees, however Jones revealed that two more students have been added to the list of Exhibition winners.
Commending the students on a job well done, he pointed out that all of the island’s sixth form schools and post-secondary establishments have done quite well in the CAPE examinations.
“You will find that Barbados performs generally quite well…It is usually between a 94 and 98 per cent pass rate at CAPE; that is tremendously high,” he noted.
“We would have had in all of our sixth forms schools the application of scholarship. How the students approached their work; how they applied what they know... I wish therefore to compliment all of our students. Our young people are working, those who want to study, those who want to stay focused and committed to their future. They dedicate themselves to their work; they do not allow distractions to frustrate that particular endeavour.”
Already looking forward to next year’s winners, the Education Minister disclosed, “We already did the analysis of those who did Unit 1 and who will go on to Unit 2 in September and if that trajectory stays true, it is going to be the largest number of persons who will ever get a scholarship or exhibition in Barbados… Last year we had about 55 scholarships and exhibitions.”
He further acknowledged the role of parents as it relates to the academic success of their children. He said that parents are the most important persons in the lives of children..
“It is how they set the agenda within their domestic environment that allows the schools and teachers to add to what is there. Teachers are those who open then the spaces to be filled in with what is delivered within the school.” (TL)