On any given day, politicians and other community leaders in The Bahamas routinely, and sometimes incessantly talk about the need for ﾓsocial transformationﾒ of this or that aspect of public policy. ﾠAnd, just as often as they speak, their words are mocked by results. ﾠIn what has become an annual ritual, there is talk galore about what the nationﾴs schools are set to achieve ﾓin the years aheadﾒ. ﾠAnother predicted ﾓyear aheadﾒ is now here. ﾠThis yearﾴs results are as dismal as last yearﾴs. ﾠAnd, there is still more talk about how the system is on the verge of transformation.
Things have reached the point, where this charade must be called by its proper name, a cruel hoax, nothing more, and nothing less.
There is today every indication, that there is education and schooling for the few, and what is little more than expensive warehousing for the many.
These two approaches to education, instruction, and training are producing two distinct types, or classes of Bahamian, each antagonistic to the other.
We are satisfied that separate and apart from any number of expert dissertations and theses about the issue of school effectiveness, there is cause for serious concern about what is happening, and not happening in the school system. We are also quite convinced that teachers must be made to bear their fair share of responsibility for what their schools produce. It just does not make any sense for them to take credit when ﾓtheirﾒ students succeed, and not when they fail.
In this regard, we do recall that there was a time in The Bahamas when any number of Master Teachers did just that. Some of them like the late Donald Davis became legends because of this attitude of mind. Now lest we be accused of being overly nostalgic, we duly acknowledge that things are very different in todayﾴs Bahamas.
The truth of the matter, as most Bahamians know, is that access to education was severely proscribed in the years preceding 1967. With the democratization of the system, which them came, also involved mass demand for more education. So demanded, so provided.
This explains, in part, some of the problems, which exist in todayﾴs Bahamas, as far as the delivery of educational services is concerned. On the one hand, while the masses of Bahamians do have universal access to schooling, there remains a deeply held suspicion that this has not brought with it a commensurate rise in the level of education.
As the argument goes, it is this trade-off between education and schooling, which accounts not only for the kinds of results coming in, but also very neatly explains the continuing hunger for credentials throughout Bahamian society. This, in turn, has fuelled the proliferation of any number of bogus schools, some of which are little more than glorified paper machines. In some instances, the so-called qualifications they ballyhoo are little more than ephemera.
In some extreme instances, there are Bahamians who are pursuing their so-called Masterﾴs degree studies, but who cannot truthfully show that they were successful in high school.
Interestingly, and predictably, this has had the net result of devaluing the educational coin of the realm in the Bahamas. In response, many employers routinely ignore ﾓpaperﾒ qualifications, and rely instead on a variety of in-house aptitude tests and other on-the-job evaluations.
By and large, these have worked.
But in truth, this is not the real issue. In our judgment, the issue, which must be tackled as far as education is concerned, has to do with the growth and flowering two radically differing visions for education, and schooling in the Bahamas.
On the one hand, there is that culture which focuses on excellence in word, and deed. And. On the other is a culture, which thrives on second-best, getting by, and ostentatious mimicry.
These two cultures are producing Bahamians who are so distinctly different, that we fear explosion when, and if they come into contact. And, for sure, there is every indication in some of the social statistics to support the conclusion that this nationﾴs schools are currently the breeding grounds for continuing social conflict
In this regard, we believe that it is bad news for everyone when access to the best schooling in a nation is predicated on family income. Whenever this is allowed to happen for any considerable length of time, social distortions arise as class fractions are consolidated in power, and position. ﾠAnd, for sure, no commonwealth can be built in and out of such a place.
Editorial, The Bahama Journal
