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Hi All,

 

I hope you read this article and think of what can Britain can learn
from this knowledge.  

 

George 

 

George Watley, BA MA CPW 

Lecturer and Postgraduate Researcher: Consumer Behaviour of
Northamptonshire Caribbean People c. 1955-1985

Division of History, School of Social Sciences

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Excellence in Barbados Starts with Discipline 


Last Updated Nov 2009 

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By Nikole Hannah-Jones

Special to the AFRO

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Uniforms are a form of discipline at Lester Vaughan secondary school in
Barbados. Educators say the modest outfits ease distractions and also
erase class differences. (Courtesy Photo/Nikole Hannah-Jones)

(November 1, 2009) - ST. THOMAS PARISH, BARBADOS - Danielle Ifill puts
her hand on her hip and poses for her friends as she dons the evergreen
mortarboard that signals her upcoming graduation.

In the auditorium of her worn-looking high school, Lester Vaughan
secondary school, teacher Wilma Wiggins makes sure Ifill's matching gown
hangs the proper distance from the floor.

While Wiggins measures, the 16-year-old with mahogany skin and ebony
eyes casts a wistful glance at the school yard she'll soon leave. A few
months from now, she'll start a computer engineering program at the
local polytechnic university. With a smile, she says she's prepared, but
nervous. "I'm going to miss it," she says. "But I am ready."

If this were an American tale, Ifill would likely be cast as an
exception. The Black girl who made it out, who managed to find a place
among the 56 percent of African-American children who graduate from high
school, and the 40 percent of those who go to college.

But here in Barbados, this tiny eastern-most island of the Caribbean,
Ifill's story is instead the rule that defies notions of Black
educational inferiority and underachievement. Barbados graduates 98
percent of its high school students; 53 percent go on to college. This
90 percent-Black nation not far from U.S. shores has the second-highest
literacy rate in the world. With 99..7 percent of its population
literate, it falls one-tenth of a point behind the three nations tied
for first in the world: Cuba, Estonia and Poland (the United States is
ranked 17th).

That this developing Black nation has managed to create a world-renowned
education system offers a lesson for American schools entrenched in what
seems to be an irreconcilable Black-White racial achievement gap: race
doesn't have to predict academic success. The key to Barbados' success
is four-fold-high expectations for all students, strict discipline,
substantial education spending and a culture that embraces education as
a form of nationalism.

"I cannot perceive of meeting someone in my society who can't read,"
says Dr. James Carmichael, a former secondary school teacher and
computer scientist. "Education is part of the national conscious."
Expectations for achievement are perhaps most illustrated by a nation's
willingness to spend money on it.

Barbados funnels nearly a fifth of its national budget into education,
and spends 6.9 percent of its entire gross national product on
education, according to the CIA World Factbook, making it 24th in the
world. The United States ranks 57th.

Students here attend school for free from pre-kindergarten to
university. The government also provides free breakfast and lunch to all
students, something the United States provides only to low-income
students.

But Barbados goes further in on key area: health care. Barbadians of all
ages have universal free access to health care. If a child is sick, he
or she can go to a neighborhood clinic near school for treatment. The
schools have a referral system built in for children who need glasses or
dental care.

"Students don't have to stay home if they're sick in Barbados," says Dr.
Dan C. Carter, a former official in the education ministry. "This means
they can be in the classroom learning."

All of these factors help place Barbados first among developing nations
on the United Nations' Human Development Index, an indicator of not just
a nation's wealth, but its quality of life.

For instance, the United States has the second highest GDP per capita in
the world, but ranks 12th on the human development index. Quality of
life indicators for African-Americans, such as life expectancy and
infant mortality, rival that of some Third World countries.

Tiny Barbados, in contrast, ranks 39th for per capita GDP but 31st among
all nations on the quality of life index.

Another important factor that makes education work in Barbados is
discipline. Diana Wilson, principal of the Lester Vaughn secondary
school, calls it the "bedrock" of the school system.

The disciplinary conditioning begins with school uniforms and ends with
the distinct threat that if a student does something particularly bad he
or she can be flogged with a bamboo cane.

All students wear uniforms color-coded by public school. The skirts fall
below the knees, no jewelry can be worn, nor any shoes other than plain
black ones. The state pays for uniforms if parents can't.

"Uniforms are a form of discipline," Mary Ann Redman, the teacher's
union president, says. "They help remove class distinction and are less
distracting."

Teachers in Barbados are held in esteem and relationships between
teachers and students are nurturing but formal. Disrespectful behavior
isn't tolerated, and teachers use several forms of discipline, including
in-school suspension and even taking students to visit detention and
drug rehab centers.

But the ultimate tool in their disciplinary arsenal - one that is
increasingly controversial worldwide - remains corporal punishment.
Barbadians young and old recount the fear of floggings - a seldom-used
but effective threat. "I had a caning once in primary school," says
Rudder, of the education ministry. "Never again. It was a deterrent for
me."

It's unlikely U.S. schools would ever embrace such punishment. But other
methods, such as uniforms, parent involvement and creating an
environment of respect, Carmichael says, can be implemented and
successful in certain American schools where, like Barbados, nearly
every seat is occupied by a brown-skinned child.

"My mother preached to us every day, 'You can't get through life without
an education,' " Danielle Ifill says at her graduation practice. "We
hear it all the time from everyone."

Nikole Hannah-Jones is a reporter for The Oregonian.

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Recent Comments 

You article is was very informing! I just wrote my city council man to
ask if they are going to require uniforms next year. They have to give
these kids discipline. There was comment about coming across kids that
can not read. In this day and age?

Posted By: Madrice G <http://yahoo.com/>  on Nov 2009

I am from Barbados. Much like the US most of the thirtiary institutions
are populated by female. This makes it difficult after University since
our men do not pursue education as diligently

Posted By: Abigail W on Nov 2009

Thanks to a government and a people with a vision. I'm a product of that
vision, and I'm greatfully thankful everyday as I work along side my
American counterparts, and realise how much move advance in knowledge I
am than most of them. I am especially saddened by the disenfranchisement
of the blacks in the inner city who have are still struggling to
overcome playing on the uneven playing field, and to see the stuggles of
a local city government that just can't get it right where education is
concerned. It hurts my heart to see that there is so much potencial in
the black youth of the inner cities of the US, yet there are somewhat
doomed because the system continues to fail them. Thanks to great
foresight of our governments (both parties) we as a people have been
able to make the illusion of impossible, possible. Honouralble Erol
Barrow, Honouable Sir Grantley Adams, Honourable Tom Adams and all other
prime ministers that were not mention. Thank you. 

Posted By: G G on Nov 2009

The Mighty Sparrow said it best. " Education, Education. it is the
foundation" For those of my generation you know the rest of the calypso.
Also our Carribean children see black men leading governments from way
back. They have role models in black men and black women and know what
can be achieved with hard work and dilligence.

Posted By: Grace R on Nov 2009

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