It is probably safe to assume that the current education system in The Bahamas is in need of serious overhaul if it is to educate and train Bahamians to work and live in a world economic space and culture which rewards excellence and punishes mediocrity. By the same token, it must be conceded that the nation’s education system is still geared towards turning out students for a world which no longer exists. One or two computers placed in schools here or there are little more than panaceas in a system which needs to be re-invented and schools which need to be re-engineered.
We are convinced that the pace of change has been so rapid and the nature of the transformation so compete in the global economy, that The Bahamas and any other country for that matter which wishes to catch up, must dedicate itself to spending massive amounts of money on the best teachers, the best methods and state of the art teaching technologies.
In the ultimate analysis, The Bahamas will only make it in the world if it understands how the larger systems work and finds out that it means to be truly world class. Unlike times past, when ‘good enough’ could be an option, today’s world demands the best. This is apparently what Sol Kerzner and his associates know, thus the world class Atlantis project which has put The Bahamas on the world map in a new kind of way. This is the lesson that must be heeded by Bahamians who would wish to emulate the best in order to become the best.
Having previously argued that Bahamian white and blue collar workers are viscerally fearful of competition, we return to this theme with a view towards making the case that they should embrace change and review any number of ideas which have become virtual shibboleths. Take for example, the morbid fear many Bahamians express concerning the so-called ‘influx’ of undocumented migrants into the Bahamas. Or for that matter, take into consideration the fear Bahamian professionals have concerning the free movement of Caribbean professionals into The Bahamas.
We believe that in the instance of undocumented migrants, the major problem relates to the fact that they are ‘undocumented’, not that they are a burden on society. Indeed, existing evidence suggests that The Bahamas is in need of their labour, and that foreign labour plays a vitally important role in any number of fields, among them construction and agriculture.
The truth, however, is that when this labour is forced to function outside the law, those markets are distorted by people who extract from them what might be euphemistically labelled ‘corruption rents’. Additionally, these undocumented migrants pose potential health and security risks to already fragile communities. This would, suggest, that policy initiatives are needed to address these issues head-on.
At another level, when significant numbers of people are obliged to pay corruption rents to live and stay in any community, taxes which should go to government are diverted. What happens next has all the hallmarks of a self-fulfilling prophecy: undocumented migrants become the centrepiece of a complex of health, security and safety issues which prove costly to society at large.
We believe that it would be in the long-term interest of The Bahamas to review the entire matter of immigration with a view towards establishing a realistic regime for the orderly and lawful reception of labour into The Bahamas, regardless of where they come from. In a world economic space which is being more and more intricately interwoven and integrated, the freer movement of all factors of production, inclusive of labour and capital will become the norm rather the exception.
In the specific instance of The Bahamas, the evidence is massively compelling that the political, economic, social and cultural progress experienced in the last half century was decisively and powerfully influenced by massive contributions of a number of first generation Bahamians. Indeed, so was the Founding Father of The Bahamian Nation, the late and Rt. Hon. Sir Lynden O. Pindling, the son of a Jamaican immigrant to The Bahamas.
Interestingly, Bahamian professionals – many of them newly minted Bahamians – are very afraid of competition, believing that were ‘foreigners’ allowed to move more feely, they would lose. We believe that they are being unnecessarily perturbed. Most of them are highly educated, extensively trained and thereby able to compete toe to toe with their counterparts anywhere in the world.
We envisage the coming of the day when Bahamian professionals – as a necessary rite of passage – will embrace change and work wherever jobs are available. A globalised world economy requires global workers. While this is easily noted, we recognise, too, that Bahamians will be afraid of such change. This is a human reaction, nothing more, nothing less. However, while their fear of change is real enough, Bahamians would be well advised to shake it off.
As part of this re-orientation to the need for them to embrace change, Bahamian workers should focus their minds on their education and training because it is really only through these that they will master the repertoire of knowledge and skills which would make them truly world class. This brings us to what is perhaps the most important question facing Bahamians today, which is their level of preparation to compete successfully in the world.
Editorial, The Bahama Journal
