Education in Barbados

Education in Barbados
Ministry of Ed., Youth Affairs
& Sports

Min. of Education & Human Resource Dev.		 Hon. Ronald D. Jones MP
National education budget (2008–09)
Budget BDS$500 million[1][2]
General details
Primary languages English
System type National
Compulsory education 1890(Education Act of 1890)
Literacy (2002[3])
Total 99.7
Male 99.7
Female 99.7
Enrollment
Total 59 500
Primary 28 000
Secondary 22 000
Post secondary 11 459+[4]
Attainment
Secondary diploma n/a
Post-secondary diploma n/a

Education in Barbados is based primarily on the British model.

There are presently:

  • 1 infant school,
  • 4 public nursery schools,
  • 71 public primary schools,
  • 2 assisted special schools,
  • 20 registered private schools,
  • 23 public secondary schools,
  • 7 assisted private secondary schools,
3 tertiary-level institutions
  • UWI Cave Hill
  • Barbados Community College (BCC)
  • The Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic (SJPP)
  • 1 teachers' training institution
  • 1 central administrative agency
2 departments, namely
  • Audio Visual Aids and School Meals Department
  • The Education Project Implementation Unit

In addition, there is 1 public senior school

Academic Term

The Barbadian school year is fashioned after the British system, and as such, it follows a scheduling with three terms per school year.

The first term begins the second week of September and continues for 15 weeks adjourning in mid-December excluding one week for Mid Term Break in Mid-October. The second Term begins in the first week of January and continues for 12 weeks ending the end of March. The final Third Term begins mid-April and continues for 11 weeks until the end of June.

The School Holiday period is 9 to 10 weeks long from the end of June until the first week of September.

Education is provided free of charge and is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 16, and attendance is strictly enforced.[5] In 1991, the gross primary enrollment rate was 90.4 percent.[5]

It was reported that Barbados has spent roughly US$15 billion on Education since Independence in 1966. In 2006 during the inaugural Cecil F. deCaires Memorial Lecture at the Frank Collymore Hall, the former Central Bank Governor Sir Courtney Blackman remarked that between 1966 and 2000 successive Governments (of Barbados) had spent US$15 billion on education costs – "a remarkable investment for such a small state".[6]

In 2009, Ronald Jones as the Minister of Education and Human Resource Development said the Barbados government spent $290 million to upgrade the schools with information technology. Given this Jones said the ministry would be entering a grading processes for schools on their usage of the technology using a scale of 1 to 6.[7]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Government of Barbados Information Network: $1/2 BILLION SPENT ON EDUCATION
  2. ↑ Bend, Katrina (2008-12-13). "Edu-upgrade on the cards". Nation Newspaper. Archived from the original on 10 February 2009. Retrieved 16 August 2009. Thompson noted $1/2 billion is spent on education in Barbados each year and government wants to increase and update this field as a tool for the country's development of Barbados. "We spend in Barbados, a 1/2 billion dollars a year on education, therefore we want to make sure that the money does not prevent any child in our country from realising his or her potential. "Every child in Barbados has access to primary, secondary and tertiary education. The participation rate at the first two levels, that is primary and secondary, is 100 per cent, while enrolment in tertiary institution is about a quarter per cent." Thompson said the overall effect of the country's investment in education is at a general standard, but it has improve significantly.
  3. ↑ Estimate for Barbados, from , CIA World Factbook
  4. ↑ "About the Ministry". Ministry of Education, Youth Affairs & Sports, Barbados. 10-01-2008. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. 1 2 "Barbados". Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor (2001). Bureau of International Labor Affairs, U.S. Department of Labor (2002). This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  6. ↑ Alleyne, David (2006-07-02). "NO WAY OUT". Nation Newspaper. Archived from the original on 26 May 2011. Retrieved 16 August 2009. THE DAYS OF FULL GOVERNMENT FUNDING for university education in Barbados is all but over. This is the prediction of former Central Bank Governor Sir Courtney Blackman. Speaking at the inaugural Cecil F. deCaires Memorial Lecture at Frank Collymore Hall on Wednesday night, Sir Courtney said few nations outstrip Barbados' spending to make education affordable. He said between 1966 and 2000 successive Governments had spent US$15 billion on education costs - "a remarkable investment for such a small state". "Government has begun to feel the fiscal burden of one of the world's most extravagant commitments to education," he said.
  7. ↑ "Schools to be graded on computer use". CBC. Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation. 2009-08-14. Archived from the original on 2016-03-07. Retrieved 16 August 2009. Some 290 million dollars has been spent equipping schools with the relevant technologies but Minister of Education and Human Resource Development Ronald Jones says he is not yet satisfied with the use of information and communication technology in primary and secondary schools in Barbados. Although millions of dollars have been invested in education hardware and software upgrades, Education Minister Ronald Jones says many schools across the island are not fully using the systems. He says schools across the island will soon receive a one to six certification grade based on how well they use the technologies available in the administrative and teaching processes. "If you are just simply using it for administrative purposes you might end up with a grade 1. "THE highest point is where the full and total integration, where students are using it in the production of their work."

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.