A political blog about Bahamian politics in The Bahamas, Bahamian Politicans - and the entire Bahamas political lot. Bahamian Blogger Dennis Dames keeps you updated on the political news and views throughout the islands of The Bahamas without fear or favor. Bahamian Politicians and the Bahamian Political Arena: Updates one Post at a time on Bahamas Politics and Bahamas Politicans; and their local, regional and international policies and perspectives.
Monday, June 7, 2010
The Bahamas' broken education system
DURING the Budget debate in the House of Assembly last week, former Education Minister Alfred Sears, announced that the country's education system is "broken" and in need of total transformation.
"I have been a Minister of Education and I can tell you the educational system in the Bahamas is broken. It is broken! And no amount of patching is going to change that. It must be transformed," said Mr Sears.
Mr Sears was not breaking new territory with this announcement. This "broken" system is a fact that we -- especially employers -- are all aware of and have had to accept for too long.
As Ralph Massey, a respected economist who did much of the research for the Coalition for Education Reform's 2005 report, said earlier this year: The "high failures and illiteracy rates" among Bahamian graduates in the public education system is "an embarrassment and severe national handicap" to this country's economic growth.
Mr Sears' argument was that the necessary across-the board budget cuts -- including education-- in the face of a severe economic crisis was "compromising investment in the human capital of our country."
What Mr Sears, and many others do not understand is that no matter how much money a government invests in education, well educated human beings are not necessarily the result.
Yesterday we had lunch with a US District Attorney -- a woman. She was discussing the education of her children, now all grown and doing brilliantly in their various fields. We were particularly interested in what she had to say about her only son. Educationally, he was a disappointment. He never brought back more than 20 per cent on his term exams -- something she considered an impossibility. But he did have one ambition -- he wanted to go to university and he knew he had to pass his finals to move on. By this time his parents had given up on him.
However, when his final results came in he had a perfect score on every paper that he had written.
What was the problem? Why had this young man given his parents so much heartburn for so many years?
The answer was simple: He was bored. He was bored with the tedium of the classroom and so his mind wandered. However, when he got to university he took the subjects that interested him, did brilliantly, and secured more than one degree. Today he is a successful lawyer.
No matter how much money was invested in him, he constantly failed because he had no incentive to learn.
At the beginning of the year, Mrs Janyne Hodder, spoke on education at a women's luncheon. If ever there was a person who exudes an enthusiasm and love for education, Mrs Hodder is an inspiration.
She is going to be a tremendous loss to this country when she leaves this year.
Although she claimed no expert knowledge on how to fix the Bahamas' educational problems, she did agree that a fix is needed, "not in words, but in actions."
"We don't need more criticism of the education system, criticism without proposals leads to defeatism." This is a point that we wish MPs would learn when speaking in the House.
If their criticism is not constructive then they would be doing everyone a favour to remain in their seats and keep their mouths shut.
Mrs Hodder then dared to dream of a different world of education, a world in which "we could stop blaming the past, the parents and the teachers, or the government and start focusing on experiments that take into account the challenges faced by parents, teachers and the government." There was merit in her suggestions-- suggestions to which we believe young people would respond with enthusiasm.
She pointed out that the overall level of educational attainment had to be increased. "We cannot have fewer than 15 per cent of our young people enrolled in higher education when every prosperous nation around us is moving to increase higher education participation rates, as high as 50 per cent in some countries."
Today, she pointed out, "even practical jobs require stronger skills. A car mechanic must now use computer data; and the stevedores of yesterday now sit astride huge straddlers that make use of sophisticated computer programmes to load and unload containers. This is skilled work, intense concentrated work."
"The economy," she said, "faces important structural challenges: We have a labour market that, in too many cases, pays higher wages for lower levels of skills than do our economic competitors. We have an overpopulated public service that turns on process management, one that is not results-oriented."
Mrs Hodder strongly supported "good jobs that pay good wages and help deliver better health, better family life and stronger communities. But for these types of jobs to be sustainable, we need a labour pool of educated innovators, skilled and educated people who add value to products or services. Such people will create the wealth without which we cannot sustain the relatively high standard of living The Bahamas enjoys."
It is now time for empty criticism to stop and innovative action to be taken.
June 07, 2010
tribune242 editorial
Thursday, May 20, 2004
Joblessness is A Pressing Concern for Bahamians in The Bahamas
STRAIGHT UP TALK
THURSDAY MAY 20TH, 2004
By Zhivargo Laing
Nassau, The Bahamas
The Bahamas 2004/2005 BUDGET MUST DELIVER JOBS
Prime Minister Christie, who is also the Minister of Finance, is set to make his third budget communication since assuming office. While he will undoubtedly have much to say on May 26th during that communication, the one thing that thousands of Bahamians want to hear him say and provide evidence of is that they will find jobs within the next fiscal year. Thousands graduated and graduating from high school and college, thousands of construction workers, thousands of unemployed or underemployed hotel workers and others have painfully endured over two years of joblessness. They look to the upcoming budget for help and hope.
The Prime Minister will have a positive global economic outlook with which to work. The world economy appears to be in full and sustained recovery. The US economy is expected to grow at rate of 4.7%, with some 3.4% growth forecasted for the 30 richest economies that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This robust growth is not expected to produce high inflation. This is good news for The Bahamas, which according to IMF estimates will grow by some 2.5% in this year and 3% in 2005. The question is: will this be jobless growth for The Bahamas, that is, will the economy grow but not produce much jobs in the process?
The economy of The Bahamas has grown positively for the last two years, in line with the economic recovery in the USA that began in November of 2001. Despite this growth, however, unemployment over the period has grown, reaching about 10% according to the last published figures from the Department of Statistics. The Household Labour Survey presently being conducted by the Department is likely to reveal that unemployment has remained unchanged or reduced only slightly. It will certainly not reveal any strength in the labour market of The Bahamas.
This picture is likely to improve over the next twelve months but only slightly. The best prospects for creating jobs over the next twelve months rest primarily with Kerzner International’s third phase and strong performance in the hotel sector. Kerzner’s Phase III is the only approved foreign investment announced by the government that appears to have the ability to generate a significant number of jobs over the next fiscal period and these jobs will be primarily in the construction area.
According to its SEC filing dated May 4th, 2004, Kerzner International expects to commence development of its 65,000 square feet Marian Village and the Expansion of its 200 2-bedroom Units in the Harborside at Atlantis between April and June of 2004 and complete it between October and November of 2005. This will create a few hundred-construction jobs in the period. The company gives no firm dates for other elements of its $1 billion Phase III but did reveal that it expects to complete the development in the Christmas of 2006.
The favourable global economic picture should translate into strong tourism performance for The Bahamas. However, this performance is not likely to create many new jobs. Rather, it is likely to secure the jobs of presently employed hotel workers over the next fiscal period and help hotel owners pay off arrears accruing from the horrible stagnation in the hotel industry for much of the last two years. There is nothing to indicate any extraordinary growth in tourism within the next year that will create a large number of new jobs high school graduates, college graduates and large numbers of unemployed hotel workers.
What is particularly sad about the job prospects over the next twelve months is that they are extremely limited in much of the Family Islands. The best prospects exist in Exuma, Abaco and Grand Bahama, and even these islands will at best experience only slight improvement in their employment pictures over the next year. The other Family Islands will have to wait a little longer to see if any significant improvement will come to the economic situation.
Undoubtedly, the government will be tempted to generate jobs through its own hiring machinery. While it claimed to have maintained a hiring freeze over the last two years, it would not be surprising to see the records show an increase in public sector employment over the period. This stealth increase in employment in the government sector will continue over the next fiscal year and to some degree will be accelerated. This notwithstanding, budget constraints will press the government to do less hiring than it would like.
The bottom line is that despite the positive economic forecast for the 2004/2005 fiscal period, joblessness will remain a pressing concern for Bahamians and for the Christie-administration. If there is any significant relief to come, it will occur either two years out or by some miraculous development beyond the control of the government within the year.
LET’S BE WISER IN THIS ECONOMIC EXPANSION
There is no telling how long this global economic expansion will last, though positive growth is estimated into 2005. There remain some significant uncertainties that could put a damper on this positive financial picture, most of all, the war on terrorism and the situation in the Gulf. Another significant terrorist attack in one of the major economies, especially the US, or a bad turn in Iraq will have serious negative consequences for the world’s economy.
With this in mind, it is important for us to be wiser and more prudent that we were in previous periods of economic expansions. Private businesses must not consume themselves with making profits in the short term. They must focus on the long term-picture, focusing on productivity, human resource training, reinvestment, global alliances and readiness for trade liberalization.
The government must focus on fiscal discipline, public sector reform, privatization and investment in education and training, among other things. The government should have a strategic approach to inward foreign direct investment, attracting investments that are tied to long-term development and sustained economic opportunities.
SOME PEOPLE JUST CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH
Readers will recall that during the 2002 general election, the PLP had a little boy on a campaign ad thanking the PLP for all it had done for The Bahamas. Frankly, it was a cute ad. “Thank you PLP for Independence,” the little boy enthusiastically and smartly said. “Thank you PLP for National Insurance,” he continued on and on. The PLP’s reference to history then during that political season did not seem to bother certain people. Today when one reminds Bahamians in a non-political season that Sol Kerzner had a five-phase development approved by the FNM administration, of which, the current third phase was one, those same people suggest that there is something wrong. Well too bad too sad for them! History is history, facts are facts and the truth is the truth! Those who want to live in the “Never Never Land” can do so. We live in the real world where reality is as stubborn as a mule.
This column reminded Bahamians that Kerzner International’s third phase was approved prior to the PLP coming to office not to lay claim to it for the FNM but to point out that the PLP was being disingenuous in its politically-timed re-announcement of it and that it had an about face on the question of Kerzner International that bordered on hypocrisy. One doesn’t get over the truth; one embraces it. One does, however, get over multiple and sizable chips that jaundice one’s view of the world. It seems that some people’s near-hatred of the FNM makes them feel that the Party should never remind the public of its accomplishments though they try to conjure up some for the PLP. We leave them to their ill-fated path.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
“Truth is as impossible to be soiled by any outward touch as the sunbeam.” John Milton