Lovely Bay, Acklins – All schools on this southeastern island are to be computerized this year in preparation for the introduction of distant learning features, Education Minister Alfred Sears confirmed at meetings here last weekend.
“For national development to be sustained, we cannot leave anybody behind,” said Minister Sears. “So, it is essential for us that computers be integrated in the process of education.”
Mr Sears and MICAL Member of Parliament V Alfred Gray headed a high-level Ministry of Education delegation, which toured schools in Acklins, Crooked Island and Long Cay on Thursday and Friday.
They were warmly received at Salina Point Primary, Acklins High School in Pompey Bay, Snug Corner Primary and Lovely Bay Primary. Students sang, danced, recited poetry and presented the delegation with handicrafts made in Acklins using native material.
The teachers and students of the schools composed songs in the programs.
Acklins, Crooked Island and Long Cay, along with nearby Mayaguana and Inagua comprise the MICAL constituency.
Members of the delegation included Permanent Secretary Cresswell Sturrup, Director of Education Iris Pinder, District Superintendent Ivan McPhee, Assistant Director of Education Vernita Roach, Assistant Director of Education Verona Seymour, Education Officer Dr Joan Rolle, and Bellville Edwards of the Ministry of Works.
“We would like to do more distant learning,” Minister Sears said. “Once the computers are in place, teachers in Nassau would be able to speak to students in Acklins via the Internet. Students would be able to participate in lectures and classes where the teachers would not be here physically.
“Through distant learning and computer technology we would be able to expose students in Acklins to a national classroom – a virtual classroom where you can be in Salina Point and students in other islands would be participating in the same classroom experience even though they would be in different locations, and everything would be taking place simultaneously.
“We are committed to putting computers into all our schools,” said Minister Sears, the Member of Parliament for Fort Charlotte.
“These computers will be internet ready so students would be able to dialogue with other students in other parts of the Bahamas and the world.
“This is something that we are committed to and within this year we would complete the upgrade and get the computers here.”
Communities in Acklins and the southern Bahamas, Mr Sears noted, have some peculiar challenges in education. Being isolated, there is a difficulty recruiting teachers for these areas for extended periods of time.
“But we are very fortunate to have a number of truly dedicated and committed teachers, many of whom are from other countries, in particular Guyana,” he said.
And, due to a shortage of teachers for those outlying communities, computerization of the primary schools is all the more important.
“We need to accelerate the computerization of our primary schools,” said Mr Sears, “because with the challenges we are having in human resources, it means we have to use the technology in a more creative way.”
When he asked Minister Sears to come to Acklins, said MICAL representative, Mr Gray, “I wanted him to see that Acklins is not where it ought to be, educationally, and we as a government have to realize that every child in this country deserves the same opportunity as every other child.
And if Nassau could have computers and the Internet, Acklins should have the same thing.
“Come September I am going to be looking for all these things to be in place,” said Mr Gray, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Local Government.
By Gladstone Thurston, Bahamas Information Services
