Policy initiatives being reviewed to help improve education system

Dec 22, 2010 News

“I will not remain in the school system as Minister when children in the school system are failing and failing,” said Minister of Education Shaik Baksh recently as he addressed heads and other managers of schools across the country.
The forum which was held at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) was one to review the Ministry’s Strategic Plan 2008-2013. And it was highlighted by Minister Baksh that there is a resistance to change in this country even as he emphasised the need for the Strategic Plan to be supported by a policy framework.
However, the Minister lamented that there is evident resistance to change in this country in the particular area of new education programmes.
“People tend to hold on to the old, they don’t want to venture out into the new. They don’t want to challenge the system to produce, but we are challenging the system to improve without apology. People don’t like the challenges.”
There are some head teachers and even some teachers, too, that are resistance to change, the Minister said, even as he expressed satisfaction that there are still some schools countrywide that have embraced the need for change, despite the existing challenges. There is an urgent need, he noted, for the system to be challenged to cater to the needs of the children.
“We have taken a bold step based on international research by no less a body than UNESCO and others and we are not afraid to do that…We have already done it and it is subjected to review if it is not working. If it is not working we can review and make changes. All of our policies are like that.”
And in order to curb the existing problem of repeated failure in the school system, the minister suggested the need for parents to support the schools.
“When children are repeating classes twice and thrice there is a need for the parents to come on board. Some of those misguided parents who want to see their children fail and continue in a class one, two and three years… heaven help them…”
The Minister expressed optimism that every child can perform once given the requisite attention and support. And in this regard he noted that several policy initiatives have been put in place and a number subjects have been reviewed to aid the process.
“We have said that children could write eight subjects, but in some areas it should be less…it should be six subjects, but the schools are left to determine that. But the bright and the talented students they can go on, we will allow that.”
But in order for the strategic plan objectives to be realised, there is an ever-growing need for parents to send their children to school said Minister Baksh.
This is especially crucial, he noted, to support the Ministry’s efforts to create child-friendly schools and resources.
“If parents do not send their children to school, this will affect the results that we are getting. So when you hear people say look at the literacy levels and so on, it is partly because parents are not sending their children to school as is happening in Region One.”
But plans are apace to address this situation. He revealed that there are plans to make strong interventions in the New Year through the Schools’ Welfare Department.
In this regard, he disclosed that some parents may very well be prosecuted in the court of law.
“We will have to prosecute some of these parents for keeping their children out of the school system…” the Minister passionately asserted.
A meeting at NCERD last Friday was geared at highlighting some of the challenges that are affecting schools and thereby hindering the achievement of the targets within the Strategic Plan.
“We will know by Region what progress is being made. The Strategic Plan ends in 2013 and so there will have to be incremental improvements, and if we do not see incremental improvements, we have to make strategic decisions of how we can bring things in line…That’s what it is about,” Minister Baksh said.
According to him, the Ministry cannot wait until the end of 2013 to realise that 40 percent of the plan has not been achieved, hence the need for a continual monitoring process. And given the reports that have been forthcoming thus far, the Minister is confident that the desired results will eventually materialise.

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Policy initiatives being reviewed to help improve education system

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