Education
April 17, 2013
Police officers are out in force in Rawson Square this morning as protestors from The College of the Bahamas are expected to gather in the front of the House of Assembly to demand the reversal of proposed fee increases. read more »
April 17, 2013
Police officers are out in force in Rawson Square this morning as protestors from The College of the Bahamas are expected to gather in the front of the House of Assembly to demand the reversal of proposed fee increases. read more »
April 17, 2013
Scores of students expressed outrage yesterday over the decision of the council of The College of The Bahamas (COB) to approve fee increases beginning this fall.
Some of those students at the COB campus also vowed not to pay the new or added fees, according to outgoing College of The Bahamas Union of Students (COBUS) President Ernesto Williams.
He told The Nassau Guardian in front of the college campus that many of the fees are seen as unnecessary and unjust, as students are being asked to pay for "substandard services". Williams added that students cannot afford the additional costs for education.
"It's no longer tuition but they've decided to increase a few fees and create some new ones," he said. "A lot of students feel unfairly treated because of it. A lot of students feel disenfranchised because of it.
"Firstly where do they come from? How are they being applied? And of course, how are they going to be brought about when we know the conditions here at the college are not changing anytime soon?"
The fee increases were approved by the council on April 10 and announced to students in a letter on Monday.
Beginning this fall, parking fees will increase from $20 per school year to $50 per semester in the fall and spring for full-time students; parking will cost $25 for part-time students. The technology fee will increase from $100 to $120 for all students during the fall and spring semesters.
Students, who currently pay no library fee, will have to pay a reinstated library fee of $50 per semester in the fall and spring. A new $100 capital facility development fee will take effect in January of next year. The full fee will be levied in the fall and spring.
The facility development fee has been specifically earmarked for capital development and long-term maintenance of the facility, said COB.
All changed or introduced fees will be reduced by 50 percent during the summer semester, COB confirmed.
Jennifer Isaacs-Dotson, president of the Union of Tertiary Educators of the Bahamas (UTEB), said she is disappointed in the council's decision, adding the decision has only bolstered her union's concerns about the college's management.
UTEB, COBUS, the Bahamas Public Service Union (BPSU) and the Public Managers Union (PMU) called for the removal of COB President Dr. Betsy Vogel Boze in a letter addressed to COB Council Chairman Alfred Sears earlier this year.
The group has also sent a letter to Boze, requesting the college's budget and accounts for the last three years; the proposed budget for 2013/2014; projected revenue for the next three years and key development priorities as it relates to executive appointments.
According to Isaacs-Dotson, those requests made in February have been ignored.
Williams also said he thinks COB's announcement was strategically timed, as there are merely days left in the spring semester.
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Some of those students at the COB campus also vowed not to pay the new or added fees, according to outgoing College of The Bahamas Union of Students (COBUS) President Ernesto Williams.
He told The Nassau Guardian in front of the college campus that many of the fees are seen as unnecessary and unjust, as students are being asked to pay for "substandard services". Williams added that students cannot afford the additional costs for education.
"It's no longer tuition but they've decided to increase a few fees and create some new ones," he said. "A lot of students feel unfairly treated because of it. A lot of students feel disenfranchised because of it.
"Firstly where do they come from? How are they being applied? And of course, how are they going to be brought about when we know the conditions here at the college are not changing anytime soon?"
The fee increases were approved by the council on April 10 and announced to students in a letter on Monday.
Beginning this fall, parking fees will increase from $20 per school year to $50 per semester in the fall and spring for full-time students; parking will cost $25 for part-time students. The technology fee will increase from $100 to $120 for all students during the fall and spring semesters.
Students, who currently pay no library fee, will have to pay a reinstated library fee of $50 per semester in the fall and spring. A new $100 capital facility development fee will take effect in January of next year. The full fee will be levied in the fall and spring.
The facility development fee has been specifically earmarked for capital development and long-term maintenance of the facility, said COB.
All changed or introduced fees will be reduced by 50 percent during the summer semester, COB confirmed.
Jennifer Isaacs-Dotson, president of the Union of Tertiary Educators of the Bahamas (UTEB), said she is disappointed in the council's decision, adding the decision has only bolstered her union's concerns about the college's management.
UTEB, COBUS, the Bahamas Public Service Union (BPSU) and the Public Managers Union (PMU) called for the removal of COB President Dr. Betsy Vogel Boze in a letter addressed to COB Council Chairman Alfred Sears earlier this year.
The group has also sent a letter to Boze, requesting the college's budget and accounts for the last three years; the proposed budget for 2013/2014; projected revenue for the next three years and key development priorities as it relates to executive appointments.
According to Isaacs-Dotson, those requests made in February have been ignored.
Williams also said he thinks COB's announcement was strategically timed, as there are merely days left in the spring semester.
read more »
April 16, 2013
Nassau, Bahamas - The following is a statement from the Hon. Jerome Kennedy Fitzgerald, Minister of Education, Science and Technology at a Press Conference held on April 15, 2013: It is particularly important at this point that I thank the nation's leader Prime Minister the Right Honourable...
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April 12, 2013
Nassau, Bahamas - Governor General Sir Arthur Foulkes on April 10 welcomes for a courtesy call at Government House, students and teachers from the East End Primary School, High Rock, Grand Bahama. Seated from left: Jordan Roach, Kayla Roberts-Sawyer, Sir Arthur, Eudell Roberts, principal and Devonia Albury, deputy head girl.
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April 10, 2013
Reading, writing and arithmetic are important, but for 14 Queen's College students, the quest for knowledge took them outside the classroom setting and into a brand new experience. The kids moved outside the walls of their school located at Village Road to experience a new culture, taste new food, and get an education without even realizing they were learning in an interactive environment.
The Modern Languages Department, headed by Gregory Deane through the school's Fast Forward Programme, immersed the students in the culture of Costa Rica over the Easter break. The students lived with Tico families and attended intensive four-hour classes daily for 18 days.
In the afternoons they engaged in eco-touristic activities. They visited a coffee plantation and traveled to Sarapiqui River (which runs through primary rainforest, farmland and green pastures and runs along the shared border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua) where they observed native species like crocodiles, howling monkeys, poisonous frogs and a variety of lizards. They visited local farmer's markets where they engaged merchants in a bartering exercise and purchased items listed by their Spanish teacher. The group also attended a FIFA soccer match between Costa Rica and Jamaica.
On the Easter weekend they traveled to La Fortuna and the Arenal volcano, which is in a resting phase, but was the country's most active volcano for the past 43 years. Up until July 2010, the eruptions had been constant. They also spent time at the Los Lagos Hotel and enjoyed the hot springs at Baldi.
"Taking kids to Costa Rica immerses them in the language to such an extent that they're forced to speak it to communicate their basic needs, especially when they're staying with Costa Rican families who don't speak any English," said Deane. "We let the kids know ahead of time things we think they'll probably hear, and what to look out for, and advised them on ways in which they may respond, or might ask for that they normally take for granted."
Because they are thrown into the "deep end," Deane said students have to learn to communicate what they're feeling and what they desire on a daily basis.
This was the ninth year that Deane has taken students to Costa Rica and he said he has seen the benefits of the immersion trip when the students return to school.
"The vast majority of the children who come back in terms of the success of the BGCSE [Bahamas General of Certificate Secondary Examinations] exams are getting A grades. A couple of them have shown improvement from a D or a C [grade] to a B level. It's like turning on a light bulb in some of their heads. It's showing them that language is actually useful so they have this additional motivation to learn the language," said the Spanish teacher. "It improves their speaking. It improves their listening, their communication skills which is why we're teaching them language ultimately."
Deane said the students who do not have the experience get to hear their peers talking about the trip and he said they then begin to think of it as a place they want to visit later in their life.
"It's fine to teach them out of a book, but it's even better to show them what you've been telling them about. It doesn't help to talk about the real Costa Rica rice and beans unless you can see it and taste it for yourself. I can prepare it in my kitchen, but it doesn't taste as good as rice and beans from a Costa Rican cook; or talk about the volcano at Arenal. To visit there and see the smoke coming out of the top and experience the hot springs first hand is something that is absolutely important.
"Going to a place such as Costa Rica where the wildlife is so abundant, they get a lesson in biology, a lesson in geography, to see a volcano their geography teacher has always been talking about ... to see an active one. They can talk about the emissions from the volcano. They can see where the land has been eroded on one side and come back and share that experience with their teacher. They saw that the vegetation was dead. They can experience the rivers and how they have shaped the landscape. They can talk about climate, and where coffee is grown relative to mountainous regions and low-lying areas, so there's some geography involved, there's history involved," he said.
As Catholicism is big in Costa Rica, over the Easter holidays, the students got the opportunity to see Costa Ricans celebrate with parades on Good Friday and Easter morning.
"There are a lot of disciplines that get pulled into the program, it's not just about Spanish, but a whole cross-curriculum deal," said Deane.
To pay for the trip Deane and the students saved money for a year, and that savings plan begins as soon as each trip is completed.
A graduate of Q.C. himself, Deane said during his school years he did not get the opportunity to take immersion trips as the kids today do because his parents could not afford it. But he said he does remember kids talking about a French trip during his time and seeing pictures of their trip in his yearbook. He recalled feeling envious at the time.
But he ensured that he made it to France. He said when his mom saw pictures from his first European trip she got emotional because she realized he had accomplished one of his dreams.
"Back in those days I suppose the kids who were able to afford it went, and that's one of the reasons why I opened up a savings program so that with clever planning and some thought about it, any average kid could actually take on such a trip once we start planning and saving a year in advance," he said.
While 14 of the kids traveled to Costa Rica, a small group had traveled to France during the Easter break. Next year, Costa Rica is on the agenda again, as well as a trip to Italy and Greece.
Approximately 200 Queen's College students have traveled to Costa Rica since the inception of the program. The number goes up to 300 if the European leg is included.
"I'm glad I started this program," said Deane. "It's an opportunity for the kids to see the world, to experience new culture, to taste new food, to step out of the classroom and continue learning basically without realizing that they're learning in a sort of interactive environment."
Eleventh grade student, Selandia Toote, 16, who traveled on her first trip described the Costa Rica jaunt was "exciting, interesting and educational."
"It was an opportunity to experience a different culture while learning a different language at the same time. It allowed me to understand Spanish better in the listening section as well as improve my writing and speaking vocabulary because I was forced to use it," she said.
Even though the family she lived with did not speak Spanish she said she was able to communicate.
"I was able to communicate because you basically have to know basic things like the word breakfast. You introduce yourself, but afterwards you learn words that they use, so it isn't hard to communicate," she said.
read more »
The Modern Languages Department, headed by Gregory Deane through the school's Fast Forward Programme, immersed the students in the culture of Costa Rica over the Easter break. The students lived with Tico families and attended intensive four-hour classes daily for 18 days.
In the afternoons they engaged in eco-touristic activities. They visited a coffee plantation and traveled to Sarapiqui River (which runs through primary rainforest, farmland and green pastures and runs along the shared border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua) where they observed native species like crocodiles, howling monkeys, poisonous frogs and a variety of lizards. They visited local farmer's markets where they engaged merchants in a bartering exercise and purchased items listed by their Spanish teacher. The group also attended a FIFA soccer match between Costa Rica and Jamaica.
On the Easter weekend they traveled to La Fortuna and the Arenal volcano, which is in a resting phase, but was the country's most active volcano for the past 43 years. Up until July 2010, the eruptions had been constant. They also spent time at the Los Lagos Hotel and enjoyed the hot springs at Baldi.
"Taking kids to Costa Rica immerses them in the language to such an extent that they're forced to speak it to communicate their basic needs, especially when they're staying with Costa Rican families who don't speak any English," said Deane. "We let the kids know ahead of time things we think they'll probably hear, and what to look out for, and advised them on ways in which they may respond, or might ask for that they normally take for granted."
Because they are thrown into the "deep end," Deane said students have to learn to communicate what they're feeling and what they desire on a daily basis.
This was the ninth year that Deane has taken students to Costa Rica and he said he has seen the benefits of the immersion trip when the students return to school.
"The vast majority of the children who come back in terms of the success of the BGCSE [Bahamas General of Certificate Secondary Examinations] exams are getting A grades. A couple of them have shown improvement from a D or a C [grade] to a B level. It's like turning on a light bulb in some of their heads. It's showing them that language is actually useful so they have this additional motivation to learn the language," said the Spanish teacher. "It improves their speaking. It improves their listening, their communication skills which is why we're teaching them language ultimately."
Deane said the students who do not have the experience get to hear their peers talking about the trip and he said they then begin to think of it as a place they want to visit later in their life.
"It's fine to teach them out of a book, but it's even better to show them what you've been telling them about. It doesn't help to talk about the real Costa Rica rice and beans unless you can see it and taste it for yourself. I can prepare it in my kitchen, but it doesn't taste as good as rice and beans from a Costa Rican cook; or talk about the volcano at Arenal. To visit there and see the smoke coming out of the top and experience the hot springs first hand is something that is absolutely important.
"Going to a place such as Costa Rica where the wildlife is so abundant, they get a lesson in biology, a lesson in geography, to see a volcano their geography teacher has always been talking about ... to see an active one. They can talk about the emissions from the volcano. They can see where the land has been eroded on one side and come back and share that experience with their teacher. They saw that the vegetation was dead. They can experience the rivers and how they have shaped the landscape. They can talk about climate, and where coffee is grown relative to mountainous regions and low-lying areas, so there's some geography involved, there's history involved," he said.
As Catholicism is big in Costa Rica, over the Easter holidays, the students got the opportunity to see Costa Ricans celebrate with parades on Good Friday and Easter morning.
"There are a lot of disciplines that get pulled into the program, it's not just about Spanish, but a whole cross-curriculum deal," said Deane.
To pay for the trip Deane and the students saved money for a year, and that savings plan begins as soon as each trip is completed.
A graduate of Q.C. himself, Deane said during his school years he did not get the opportunity to take immersion trips as the kids today do because his parents could not afford it. But he said he does remember kids talking about a French trip during his time and seeing pictures of their trip in his yearbook. He recalled feeling envious at the time.
But he ensured that he made it to France. He said when his mom saw pictures from his first European trip she got emotional because she realized he had accomplished one of his dreams.
"Back in those days I suppose the kids who were able to afford it went, and that's one of the reasons why I opened up a savings program so that with clever planning and some thought about it, any average kid could actually take on such a trip once we start planning and saving a year in advance," he said.
While 14 of the kids traveled to Costa Rica, a small group had traveled to France during the Easter break. Next year, Costa Rica is on the agenda again, as well as a trip to Italy and Greece.
Approximately 200 Queen's College students have traveled to Costa Rica since the inception of the program. The number goes up to 300 if the European leg is included.
"I'm glad I started this program," said Deane. "It's an opportunity for the kids to see the world, to experience new culture, to taste new food, to step out of the classroom and continue learning basically without realizing that they're learning in a sort of interactive environment."
Eleventh grade student, Selandia Toote, 16, who traveled on her first trip described the Costa Rica jaunt was "exciting, interesting and educational."
"It was an opportunity to experience a different culture while learning a different language at the same time. It allowed me to understand Spanish better in the listening section as well as improve my writing and speaking vocabulary because I was forced to use it," she said.
Even though the family she lived with did not speak Spanish she said she was able to communicate.
"I was able to communicate because you basically have to know basic things like the word breakfast. You introduce yourself, but afterwards you learn words that they use, so it isn't hard to communicate," she said.
read more »
April 05, 2013
Freeport, Grand Bahama -- Friday, March 8, 2013 was a bittersweet day at Mary, Star of the Sea Catholic School. Administration, staff, and students bid farewell to Ms. Jackie Bailey and Ms. Kaitlyn Pratt. Students of St. Bonaventure, Jackie and Kaitlyn were part of the SIFE Program, a segment of St...
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April 05, 2013
Freeport, Grand Bahama -- Friday, March 8, 2013 was a bittersweet day at Mary, Star of the Sea Catholic School. Administration, staff, and students bid farewell to Ms. Jackie Bailey and Ms. Kaitlyn Pratt. Students of St. Bonaventure, Jackie and Kaitlyn were part of the SIFE Program, a segment of St...
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April 03, 2013
Students in the "Student Success" class at BTVI yesterday, were spellbound as Free National Movement Leader, Hon. Dr. Hubert A. Minnis brought the House of Assembly to life right in their classroom! He gave a vivid glimpse in colorful details about what takes place in Parliament and in the Senate. read more »
April 03, 2013
Barry Griffin Jr. had no reason not to excel academically. He is naturally ambitious with a go-getter personality. That coupled with his upbringing in a home with parents who were focused on education and gave him all the support he needed translated into a young man who was an honor student for the duration of his academic life. read more »
March 28, 2013
Entries for youth essay competition close on 8 April Young people across the Commonwealth are being invited to share their views on women's education, development and political empowerment. The Commonwealth 'Women in Leadership' essay competition is a chance for young people between the...
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March 28, 2013
The names of many of our public schools pay tribute to master teachers whose contributions to national development were extraordinary and critical.
Students should be reminded of those contributions by educators such as Mabel Walker, L.N. Coakley, N.G.M. Major, Naomi Blatch, T.G. Glover, C.V. Bethel...
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Students should be reminded of those contributions by educators such as Mabel Walker, L.N. Coakley, N.G.M. Major, Naomi Blatch, T.G. Glover, C.V. Bethel...
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March 28, 2013
Nassau, Bahamas - His Excellency the Governor General, Sir Arthur Foulkes receives students and teachers of Maurice Moore Primary School during a courtesy call at Government House on Tuesday, March 26...
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March 28, 2013
Freeport, Bahamas - Mary Star of the Sea Catholic School's 17th annual Down Home celebration was a time for reflection for all in attendance who were encouraged to be 'Proud of Our Heritage'. Addressing faculty, students, parents and other invited guests, Ginger Moxey, Vice President...
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March 27, 2013
Bank of The Bahamas has signed on as the title sponsor for the prestigious Primary School Student of The Year Awards Programme. A national recognition programme, it honours and rewards high performing primary school students from more than 120 schools around the country.
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March 27, 2013
The Student Union Body of the College of the Bahamas will have a new executive team after ballots are counted following the close of the polls later this evening. There are five positions up for grabs which are being contested by students hoping to represent the interests of students for the year 2013-2014.
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March 27, 2013
The third time was definitely the charm for 12-year-old St. John's College eighth grade student, Danielle Smith. After two previous Spelling Bee attempts the preteen made it to the national stage on her third try and snagged the top title in her final year of eligibility.compete in the school's spelling competition that year.
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March 27, 2013
Internal challenges, namely a lack of volunteers, prevented the Governor General's Youth Award (GGYA) from reaching its 2012 registration goal of 2,000 youths, attendees at the organization's Annual General Meeting (AGM) were told over the weekend. read more »
March 27, 2013
There's an excellent program on Fox Television called "House Calls." On the program, the guests are two very knowledgeable medical doctors who answer all sorts of questions put to them by the two co-hosts of the program, and also answer some questions which viewers email to the program.
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March 25, 2013
Bank of The Bahamas has signed on as the title sponsor for the prestigious Primary School Student of The Year Awards Programme. This premier national recognition programme honors and rewards high performing primary school students from more than 120 schools around the country. BOB’s five thousand dollar sponsorship will provide a scholarship for the most exceptional student from among this year’s nominees. read more »
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