Sixth forms expansion highlighted

Since returning to office, the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) has quietly but confidently been transforming education in this country.

That’s according to Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ronald Jones. His comments came as he spoke of the work of his ministry during a press conference at the DLP’s George Street headquarters yesterday, to launch the e-version of the 62nd Annual Conference document. He also told the media and party supporters gathered that as much as 18 to 20 per cent of the Government’s annual expenditure, some five to six per cent of the Gross Domestic Product, is allocated to and spent on education.

He made the point as he spoke to the work being done to expand the post-secondary school offerings in Barbados, particularly by way of the creation of additional sixth forms at several schools across the island. Jones noted that the initial four sixth form schools – Harrison College, Queen’s College, Combermere and The Lodge School along with the Barbados Community College (BCC), were not meeting the demands of students for higher education, leaving hundreds without an option to pursue higher learning.

“We thought that it was necessary since BCC itself didn’t have the physical capacity or resources to expand, to do some expansion at the sixth form level across several schools. This is a singular achievement, I think, for this Government. We would have wanted to turn every single school into a sixth form establishment, therefore taking up all of our children who would have successfully transitioned from CSEC to CAPE or the Associate Degree of CXC, or the Associate Degree of the Barbados Community College,” he noted.

Jones said that the first two new sixth form schools – Christ Church Foundation and The St. Michael School – have been performing well over the last four years and since then Springer Memorial, St. Leonard’s Boys and Alexandra School have joined the mix. This year, he said, Ellerslie Secondary and The Alleyne School are set to commence their sixth forms, once all goes well.

“We are currently doing a study on the expansion, but it suffices to say we have put into the school system approximately 1 000 students who hitherto, even though matriculating at a level that gave them an opportunity to further develop and advance, might be struggling to get into the University of the West Indies and that is not what we want,” he said.

His comments came as he added that even with more students pursing the CXC’s CAPE programmes, there has been no drop in the success rate of students at that level. He indicated that Barbados usually achieves between 96 and 98 per cent passes Grade 1 to 5 and this has continued. (JRT)