NASSAU, The Bahamas – The Bahamas government says it has adopted an aggressive policy aimed at restructuring the country’s education system, including free tuition at the University of the Bahamas, to ensure the next generation is equipped to deal with a changing global environment.
Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis, in a radio and television broadcast on Mar. 25, said education remains at the “very core of our economic and social development.
“Our mission is to ensure that everyone has access to the educational opportunities they need and deserve, in order to succeed in life and to become responsible citizens,” Minnis said in his second “Report to the Nation for 2019”.
IMPACT
Minnis said reform of the educational system must impact every stage of learning from pre-school to university and other education and training agencies.
“We have to think big, and to act boldly to secure our future,” he said. “Beginning this September qualifying students will be able to attend the University of the Bahamas tuition-free. We will make more announcements on this at a later date.”
Minnis said his administration is committed to expanding access to technical and vocational skill training, for many more Bahamians.
He said the “Bahamas Be Your OwnBoss” (BYOB) scholarship is geared towards providing students, mainly between ages 18 and 25, with technical and vocational skills to start businesses and/or secure employment in the business sector.
CHILDREN
Minnis said early childhood education is also being enhanced with the Bahamas Early Start (BES) Project, which he said would fortify the sector by focusing on the equitable delivery of comprehensive, and quality childhood development for all children from the earliest stages of development.
In April 2018, the Ministry of Education introduced the Universal Pre-Primary Education Initiative to key education stakeholders. The initiative will increase access to pre-primary education for three and four-year-olds throughout the country.
He said the government has also launched a pilot program to introduce tablets to pre-schoolers in public preschools. Eleven pre-schools on the islands of New Providence, Grand Bahama, Long Island, Andros, Cat Island, and Abaco, participated in the project.
Minnis said a laptop and LCD projector were given to each teacher and an Amazon Fire Tablet, to each student. He said these devices are being used to support the teaching and learning process in preschools, by providing students and teachers with technology that may help to develop and to enhance 21st century learning skills.
UPGRADES
Minnis said that infrastructural upgrades have also taken place at most of the pre-schools, to accommodate the increased demand for wi-fi and Internet connectivity. The remaining schools will be upgraded by 2020 through the Smart School Initiative.
“We will launch a pilot program at the Anatol Rodgers High School for the use of tablets in high schools,” he said. “The pilot will test the efficacy of digital literacy on student achievement at the high school level, and examine student attitudes toward using technology across the curriculum and subject disciplines.”
As of Dec. 2018, the Ministry of Education acquired 12,000 digital devices for distribution in the schools and Minnis said that contracts have been signed with the country’s two major Internet service providers to install high-speed Internet services, in all government-operated schools.
