Dear BP,
I am a proud product of the Bahamas public school system of the 1960’s. During my time, I had wonderful teachers, all now long departed, but who instilled in me a zest for learning and stressed the endless possibilities for those of us who took our studies seriously.
They were right; I took my studies seriously and went from strength to strength in my education and professional life. The schools were disciplined, and any ill discipline got you a visit to either Mr Glover or Mr Bowleg. The teachers weren’t easy either. They demanded and expected your best and ensured that you gave it. Public schools today have absolutely no resemblance to those I attended. Daily fights, unruly students and parents and a general state of lawlessness which makes it nearly impossible for students to learn.
I do not for one moment think that this is the state of all schools. I am sure that there are public schools which produce excellent students, but where are they? With an annual grade average across all schools of “D,” this statistically indicates that there are many A and B students in the system. While the Ministry of Education lumps all schools together, one wonders who they are protecting from the embarrassment of being revealed as the schools that produce only ill-prepared, disruptive students.
And, given the pay demands and threats from teachers, why are we not demanding more and receiving better grades from the students under their tutelage? It is time for one of the best-kept secrets in Bahamian education to be exposed. Which schools are performing well, and their administration deserves merit pay, and others whose teachers need to be sent on a remedial teaching course. To achieve this and solve this mystery, we must disaggregate examination results by school and subject. School administrations in other countries provide parents and the public with Annual School Performance Dashboards, so why doesn’t the Bahamas? Why is the Bahamian Taxpayer threatened when teachers’ union contracts expire, and we don’t even know if we are receiving value for money? All of these juicy contracts and publicly funded pensions give us the right to question what on earth is going on in the public school system.
For example, why do employers continually complain that many students can barely read instructions and consequently cannot effectively use most of the equipment they need to be familiar with? Disaggregation of school grades is not meant to be punitive. Rather, parents and prospective employers need to see the quality of students being produced. Of course, if the best students are graduating from particular schools, then that’s where we would recruit from, and the laggards must find ways to improve their teaching methods and delivery.It’s very simple: Each school publishes a dashboard with:
- BJC/BGCSE results by subject
- Grade-level performance (e.g., Grade 9 math readiness)
- Teacher-level performance indicators (non-punitive but diagnostic)
- Attendance, discipline, and dropout metrics
- Three-year trend lines
This school-specific dashboardidentifies where the problem is, not just that a problem exists. Based on this, the deficient schools receive the additional assistance required to improve. I can hear the howls of anger from some teachers and the MOE, which has historically protected bad teachers to preserve union peace. Too bad; we are paying teachers a lot of money, and we expect a good return on our investment.
Sincerely,
Michael J. Brown
