The Hon Prime Minister, Dr. Roosevelt Skerrit, a former educator and Education Minister, stands by his Government’s decision to implement universal secondary education.
The policy means that all boys and girls get a chance at a secondary education.
Its introduction in Dominica meant the replacement of the Common Entrance Exam with the Grade Six National Assessment.
Hon Dr. Skerrit remains assured that this decision was the best for the island’s students.
“I stand very firmly in support and defense of this policy decision because this Government believes that every single child has the ability to learn and every child has talents and skills. It is left to us, educators and society, to allow those talents to shine and to let our students know that they are bright and intelligent. No child is stupid; every single child is bright. It is left to teachers to use your skills, education and training to bring it out,” he said.
He went further to suggest special programmes for slower learners.
Prime Minister Skerrit told educators to focus on success and not failure.
“Our exams must not be geared to see who fails but to see who passes and those who do not get to the point of passing, let us give them a second opportunity to do the exam over.”
According to UNICEF, a child in the last grade of primary school only has at best a 75% chance of making the transition to lower secondary school in at least 20 countries of the world.
As it relates to tertiary education, the Labour Party Government is proud of its achievement in improved college access.
“A lot of people tend to forget sometimes [that] 44% of all primary school graduates had access to secondary school in Dominica. We set ourselves a target to achieve universal access to secondary education by 2007 and we achieved in two years in advance in 2005.
“When we came into office, only 7% of high school graduates had access to the college. It means that 93% of students who graduated secondary school never saw the light of college. It is not because they did not pass with enough CXC subjects; I was a lecturer at the college back then in 1997-1999 and because the system said we were accepting a certain number. So even before the exams were done, we knew how many would make it to college. Today, we have set the platform based on our investments in the college to allow for 100% of high school graduates to access the college in Dominica.”
Hon Dr. Skerrit says his Government will continue to spend on education and increasingly so.
Meantime, the nation’s honourable leader, Dr. Roosevelt Skerrit has issued stern warnings to local parents.
He told both caregivers and parents to make education a clear priority in their homes.
“We must not leave our children without their needs…and spend money on a 50-inch television. We cannot say that we do not have money to buy text books but we have a smart phone which costs $2,700. We cannot say that we are too busy to attend PTA meetings or to pick up our children’s report books and we spend three nights at the Windsor Park Stadium and at festivals,” he stated.
All of this he says because,” I want to see every one of our children do well in this country because it is through education that we will get our children out of poverty.”