More sixth forms on the cards, says Senator

Barbados is set to introduce sixth forms in at least three additional secondary schools in the coming school year.

 

That’s the word from Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Senator Harcourt Husbands. Delivering the Democratic Labour Party’s lunchtime lecture on Friday after at the Party’s George Street headquarters, he told the modest audience that The Alleyne School, Ellerslie Secondary School and Coleridge and Parry are the schools they are currently considering. He said this is part of the Ministry’s plan to expand the number of sixth form places available in the country. He noted that originally there were only four sixth form schools, a number that has increased in recent years with St. Leonard’s Boys’ School, The Alexandra School, The St. Michael School, Christ Church Foundation and Springer Memorial being brought on board.

 

“We were just at Grantley Adams [Secondary School] and the principal publicly made an appeal to have his school on the list and the Minister publically assured him that that school will be added to the list. He wants a special set of subjects, the CVQs; he wants his school to be known as the sixth form institution for the Caribbean Vocational Qualifications. So that one hopefully will be added to the list and as we go on we will add more,” the Senator stated.

 

This is being done, the Parliamentary Secretary said, because they recognise that many parents and students prefer the school setting that sixth forms provide, as opposed to the post-secondary institutions like the Barbados Community College, including its Hospitality Institute commonly referred to as PomMarine and the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic. Added to that Husbands said, the demand for those educational institutions remain high and there are not enough places to meet the number of students who apply or are even qualified to enter those institutions.

 

“We are in a situation in the institutions where we don’t have enough places and we are madly attempting to ramp up the number of places available in these institutions to deal with the demand, especially an institution like the PomMarine. This country is currently experiencing tremendous expansion in the tourism sector and we have to do a tremendous amount of training in tourism related fields and skills if we are to meet the demand for employment that we project in 

the tourism sector in the coming years. So there is a critical need for expansion at the PomMarine,” he said.

 

With that in mind, he explained that some of that lack of capacity is being met by the expansion of the number of schools offering sixth form education. Moreover, he said that as they expand the number of sixth form offerings, they will also be introducing non-traditional subjects. To date, he said, such subjects as Design Technology, Building and Mechanical Drawings, Entrepreneurship, Physical Education and Agricultural Science have been added to the curriculum. (JRT)