Dear Editor,

A blessed morning to all. With the latest publicly released statement by the Ministry of Education of The Bahamas regarding graduation and the new requirements for graduation, one must ask the following questions.

If 6,000 students are leaving school every year in The Bahamas, and only or less than 50 percent graduate; with the government now saying that those who do not meet the BGCSE's requirements will have to repeat grade 12 of an already overcrowded, failed educational system; if the existing classroom sizes is presently 40 to 45 students to a teacher, then the government's new educational demands or requirements will cause the already overcrowded existing classroom size to bloat to 65 or 70 students per classroom and teacher.

It is of grave concern and interest to myself and others as to what will be the result in the system moving forward, as we could see the dropout rate possibly doubling and further degradation of the educational system and our society.

It is our hope that any changes made to the educational system are done with extreme consideration for positive results, rather than the bully mentality route without considering the negative ramifications at the end of the day.

Students are faced with setting exams for work that was never taught to them during the entire year in school even though they had such long and expensive booklists.

We must create an up-to-date, technology-driven educational platform moving forward.

At the end of the day, the government must make provision of accommodation for the students who have failed, because the reality is that there is more than just the 50 percent graduate failure of this year being around 2,500-3,000 students. The past four years must be included; grades 9, 10, 11, 12 being about 20,000-24,000 students being affected, equivalent to four high school populations.

If this is the new standard being set by the ministry without any consideration of consequences then this is simply ludicrous and grandstanding and has no real long-term solution and consideration for the youth of this country.

Let's fix the problem rather than penalizing the victims of a failed educational system of which children were and are forced to endure for eight hours daily for 12 years in concentration camp style hotboxes and outdated classrooms

Fix it now.

- James Edwards

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