January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
Are we finally on the road to education salvation?
Minister Horton has finally told us the truth about education... well, some of it at least
Are we finally on the road to education salvation?
Minister Horton has finally told the truth about Education. But folks, not all of it. Just some of it. Just part.
Like a sinner answering the Call, in that first burst of fervent public confession, he doesn't detail every theft or adultery or sin or whatever he's confessing. He only tells part. Like that sinner, Minister Horton has now revealed part of the truth about the public education system.
The Minister went to the press conference lectern - his Ministerial and political pulpit. He spoke to his congregation (a.k.a known as the national electorate). He told us lot that the graduation rate - the real graduation rate - in Bermuda's public education system is about 65 per cent. This real rate comes by comparing what goes in at S1 with what comes out in S4. No matter how it is justified, and no matter what convoluted theory is quoted, this is still the only real world comparison that matters. Doing anything else is like engaging in the kind of financial valuation and comparison shenanigans that precipitated this current global economic crisis.
Twelve months ago, you'd probably never even heard of the word 'sub-prime'. Now that word that you'd hardly heard - really the results flowing from financial activities involving that word and which included a departure from basic financial commonsense - has already affected Bermuda's national economics with what looks like a cessation of work on the Sonesta property and non-starts to Jumeirah and the Holiday Inn replacement.
Now that our newly enlightened Minister has at last revealed part of the truth and has told us what the public education system's graduation rate really is, he needs to go just one more step on his incredibly slow journey to truth and light.
Like all the rest of God's 'chilluns, he's gotta put on his robe, he's gotta put on his shoes, and he's gotta walk all over this Island and tell us this next truth.
He must reveal to us lot that the public system, when it graduates that 65 per cent of its S1 intake, graduates them at an academic level that is two whole years behind, or two whole years below, the level of the students who graduate from the private sector schools. He must reveal that private school students take the GCSE, which is a higher quality certificate than the BSC, when they are aged 15/16. He must reveal that an eighteen year-old public school student who graduates with a BSC has a piece of paper that is worth a lot less than an International Baccalaureate or Advanced Placement Examination pass, which is what an eighteen year-old graduate from the private sector will have.
We know there's a gap
He must reveal all of that. Like an adulterer keeping secrets from his wife, many others see and know of this gap; but the Minister keeps treating us lot as if he is the adulterer and us lot are his wife's people. But - "Hallelujah!" - now that he's seen the light, he needs to come back to his political pulpit and make the second part of his national confession.
We'll forgive him. Us lot are nice and we forgive much. Look at some of what we've already forgiven.
But with global stock markets tumbling, big banks and big corporations going bust, and governments scrambling to hold economies together; we can all appreciate that the real world is absolutely unforgiving. The real world is a brutal world. By concealing the fact that we have been - and that in 2009 we still will be - under-educating and under-preparing those of our very own Bermudian children who rely on the public education system; then, like an adulterer, we've been concealing the truth that we've been sending our own children out to be slaughtered in the brutal economic competition taking place every day right here in Bermuda.
Minister Horton, take one more step on your journey to truth, light, and salvation. Reveal this next truth. Give us cause to shout another loud "Hallelujah!"
And I'll add a "Hosannah!"[[In-content Ad]]
Comments:
You must login to comment.