Bdos’ teacher-student ratio ideal for The Bahamas

The teacher-to-student ratio in the pre-school system that Barbados has been able to achieve and maintain over the years is a goal that the Government of the Bahamas would like to attain for their pre-school educational system.

This is the word from the Minister of Education in the Bahamas, Jeffrey Lloyd, who was speaking at the time to the media during a press conference following a meeting with Barbados’ Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ronald Jones and other officials at the Ministry and prior to a tour of some of the nursery schools on the island.

Minister Lloyd stated that in discussions with officials from the local education ministry, his colleague – the Acting Director of Education (which is the equivalent of the Chief Education Officer here in Barbados), Marcell Taylor – and himself, were impressed with the teacher-to-student ratio for this island, which in most cases stands at one teacher to every 15 students.

“So I am really pleased and privileged to be here and I am looking forward to learning as much as we can so that we can adapt and employ back in our own country,” he added.

Lloyd said that as it currently stands, the teacher-to-student ratio in the pre-school educational system in the Bahamas is one teacher to every 20 students, a figure which he believes is too high considering that at that young and impressionable age, students need as much individual attention that they can get.

“Well I get very impressed with the Barbados model which is a one to 15 ratio which is my ambition and which is the Government’s ideal. We feel that that is necessary because at that crucial stage of their lives, they need as much individual attention and the opportunity to ensure that they achieve those attaining targets that the Minister (Jones) spoke about and those that we have as well because if they miss it at that age, then it becomes more of a challenge in order for them to recapture that ground which they have lost.

He continued: “In the Bahamas we are presently only 1 500, both in private and in public schools, there are only 1 500 that are enrolled in pre-school education, which is only approximately 20 per cent of what it needs to be. So you can see how wide there is a gap there is according to the information that is available to me.”

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