International Conference on Higher Education starts

As the 5th International Conference on Higher Education (ICHE) got on its way on Sunday evening, Prime Minister of Barbados, the Rt. Hon. Fruendel Stuart offered a brief synopsis of how learning traveled across the Western world as well as highlighted three mandates of educational policy during his feature address.

 

Speaking of learning from the ancient and medieval worlds, the Prime Minister stated that education was for the upper class while the lower classes were expected to do nothing more than produce and defend. This, he said was true of Greek and Roman societies until the collapse of the Roman Empire. At this point, the Church was the largest landlord and most education came from them.

 

To date, Prime Minister Stuart outlined that learning is no longer tied to the church and is no longer for a certain class; but its shortcomings are the result of the history of the western world. He went on to state that Barbados, like other territories, started as a slave society and even with the abolition of slavery, the country inherited a system that promoted the metropolitan power while sub-ordinating ourselves. The system, he went on to state, accentuated a steering clear of asking the question, ‘why’ which is changing now. According to the Prime Minister, this custom has had a crippling and paralyzing effect on development and now, we are tasked with making education serve the purpose that we want.

 

This led to the Prime Minister posing the question of, “How will we make effective use of education to help us to achieve goals which we have set for ourselves?” While pointing out that education is irrelevant if it is not pointing in the direction of social policies, such as sustainable development, Prime Minister Stuart admonished that the content of education has to reflect what is happening in society. 

 

Secondly, he noted that the educational system needs to communicate with its beneficiaries (learners and teachers) that education is intended to be a source of empowerment, self-help; and self-respect. Expounding on this, Stuart noted that education is not a luxury; but had to be fought for as a means of self-help. He also added that it is a medium of self-respect and empowerment. Lastly, calling on the saying “Education should prepare people for the world of work”, the Prime Minister stated that while nothing is wrong with that, the system should not only prepare citizens for work; but equal emphasis should be placed on all other aspects.