Conversely when teachers fail, their bitter fruit product undermines society and civilization and the national development effort is undermined.
Today’s crisis in education is a case in point. Seeds of neglect planted yesterday are today parent to bitter fruit.
It is on this note that we note that the Hon. Alfred M. Sears says the obvious and speaks the truth when he observes that this nation’s education system is in crisis. We absolutely agree with him.
The Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute is apparently collapsing. The College of The Bahamas is roiled in one controversy after the other. Teachers are working to rule.
Students are fighting among themselves. Police Officers are now stationed on school campuses.
And everybody admits that little book learning is taking place.
In the meantime, a torrent of money is being spent to keep this decrepit system running.
Something has got to be wrong with this picture.
Were he to also say that the system is in need of urgent attention, we would also agree. Were he to confess that he is burdened with a bloated bureaucracy, and that it is expensive and inefficient, again we would be obliged to agree with the Hon. Alfred M. Sears.
We are convinced that Minister Sears will get no real opposition from anyone with any sense concerning the nature of the problem.
But where we part company with Minister Sears is when it comes to determining what is to be done and who should do what to fix an education system that is in near total crisis.
Today we recall that when the Minister was brave enough or thought himself man enough to allow himself to be saddled with two challenging ministries, many of his friends and quite a handful of his detractors counseled that he should be relieved of one.
As the record shows, he held on – as if for dear life – for almost four years.
But as the record also shows, the time came when the Prime Minister was obliged to agree with the proposition that Sears had had enough.
In this regard, it is interesting to note that the prime minister was convinced that Mr. Sears should lead in The Ministry of Education.
So today we have a situation where the deed has been done, Alfred Sears is now able to focus on one set of responsibilities and is now in a position to employ his prodigious talents to his portfolio as Minister of Education, Science and Technology.
Sadly, the record now shows that the Minister still seems burdened. And at other times he seems troubled, beset and harried.
But even more troubling to any number of veteran educators is what seems to be the minister’s penchant for fobbing responsibility off to others.
Making matters worse is that he has apparently not been able in all the time that he has been Minister of Education, to bring a recalcitrant bureaucracy in the Department of Education to heel.
As a consequence, confusion abounds.
Things have reached the point, where this charade must be called by its proper name, a cruel hoax, nothing more, and nothing less.
On the one hand, there is that culture which focuses on excellence in word, and deed. On the other is a culture, which thrives on second-best, getting by, and ostentatious mimicry.
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. No commonwealth can be built in and out of such a place.
The question then concerns determining how the system can be improved and who is to do what when the time arises for action.
In the first instance, what we need is a Minister of Education who can inspire confidence.
Education reform demands that there be top to bottom reform of the bureaucracy.
Purposeful change also demands that parents invest in their children’s education.
There must be the forging of productive partnerships between public institutions, business and civil society institutions and organs.
But more so than all of these is the insistent demand that politicians do not allow themselves the unnecessary luxury of taking teachers for granted. These nation builders need to be treated with the utmost respect.
Editorial from The Bahama Journal
