Concerns raised over Barbadian education system's performance in recent exams

The Literature on Education at least what I have read, suggests that education reform strategies should begin to bear fruit in about eight to ten years. It is now 2024 and few would claim that either on the cognitive or affective levels the Barbadian education system has shown revolutionary change. In the affective domain we are witnessing a growing array of social pathologies that threaten to overwhelm us, including drug use, violence, young women going missing and rampant gun crime.

Most documents on education reform whether here or abroad are more political than pedagogical statements. The Republican administration of Geoge W Bush, (Bush 43) promised that ‘no child will be left behind,’ but successive Republican governments in the United States have refused to extend social provision for the poor. The Republican Party in the United States has opposed the Affordable Care Act(Obama Care) and even of late refused to support Biden’s Child Care Act which was on track to lift 24 per cent of American children out of poverty. The truth is that we can only accelerate education if we advance children socially and economically. The notion of affording every child a bright future is only achievable if we can substantively improve the socio-economic conditions in which children actually live.

In all the talk about transformation, a number of fault lines are showing up in Barbadian society and many are putting our children at increasing risk.

A special report in the Economist Magazine of July 13 is entitled Schooling Stagnation. Correspondent Mark Johnson writes: ‘Schools in rich countries are making poor progress. They should get back to basics.’ He posits that according to the Nation Assessment of Educational Progress in the United States, known as ‘The National Report Card, that ‘after years of progress, in the 2010’s education performance plateaued and after 2020 test scores started edging downward. The world’s leading reporter on education, The OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) argues that after 1920 students even in wealthy countries were proving less competent in maths, reading and science. The exception were ‘the rising stars’ in Asia in contrast with western systems that are making little headway or in some cases are in perilous decline.’

A number of factors have been blamed for failing performance across the board. One such is the COVID pandemic which is obviously a cause. Many children for one reason or another missed out on instruction and a number never returned to school after the pandemic was over. The figures for Britain are shocking, particularly as it affected white working class boys. However, several reports consistently make the point that the decline actually predates the pandemic. A body of research points to growing rates of anxiety and other mental health issues plaguing today’s young people. According to the OECD, in 2022 about 18 per cent of teenagers rated their life satisfaction at four or less out of ten. This was up from 11 per cent back in 2015. This has been attributed to the onslaught of the pandemic and the negative effects of social media.

One other factor is the increasing use of cell phones and their presence in the classrooms. This is proving a serious distraction for students and teachers. Except for two provinces, the provincial governments in Canada have very recently banned cell phones in schools. The big question raised on CBC Canada’s programme The National (Tuesday August 27 2024) was how do schools effectively police the ban. The new technology is proving an increasing deterrent to quality reading. More than 60 per cent of rich-world pupils say that their phones or tablets distract them during school lessons. Students who reported spending a lot of time fiddling with devices in school score lower than others in international test.

Another factor is the changing nature of children, schools and society. Classrooms have become more disruptive. Today ‘s children are generally less deferential to adults, including parents and teachers who in a more liberal climate have less recourse to the disciplinary stricture they once had. The homes are increasingly less supportive of the school as it struggles to cope with the problems coming from the said homes and the society at large. According to the Economist magazine of July 13, 2024, in England 80 per cent of primary schools polled before the pandemic said that they were devoting more time to social and emotional education than five years previously.

Finally it is becoming increasingly clear that the teaching profession is finding it difficult to co-opt and retain the kind of teachers needed to promote the kind of changes that educational systems say they want to effect. That is the subject for another article.