"If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life." - Plato
Last week, we discussed national priorities, including the educational system in The Bahamas which is generally accepted as dysfunctional and urgently in need of reform. Therefore this week we would like to Consider This; is there an ideal educational system for the 21st Century Bahamas?
Education is the process that a society creates to prepare its citizens for productive participation in its social, political and commercial life. The ideal educational system requires a clearly defined system of values and a set of socializing skills, and encourages individuals to develop a positive self-image and the ability to approach issues from more than a single point of view.
Over the years, Bahamians have developed a belief that education is synonymous with and the primary responsibility of the school system. Consequently, we have marginalized some of our more fundamental institutions like the church and the extended family, where we were traditionally taught concepts of right and wrong, good and bad, fairness, and so forth. We have delegated the most basic and crucial part of early childhood development and the inculcation of cultural values to institutions like pre-schools and day-care centers.
We have also become accustomed to evaluating our success in education by the results published by the school system. We view the success rate or lack thereof in our national examinations as a barometer of whether we will be successful in later life. As observed by our own distinguished architect, author and artist, Patrick Rahming, "Academic results and productive participation in society have had little to do with each other. If we accept that education's goal is productive participation in the community's affairs, our success in this area must be measured against that criterion."
So how do we design an ideal educational system for the 21st Century Bahamas? First, we must appreciate that an effective educational system should be tailored to the various stages of human development. In his paper entitled "Education Reform" Patrick Rahming asserts that "if we are to discuss the reform of the system, we must have that clear vision of the end product." In this column, we have drawn heavily from that paper in which Mr. Rahming suggests that there are four requirements that must be adequately addressed for productive participation in society's life.
"The first requirement is a commitment to a clear system of values which are essential for the development of trust, without which there can be no productive interchange. The second is a set of socializing skills, including self-discipline, the ability to work with others towards a goal, or collaboration, and the ability to see an issue from more than one point of view. The third is a set of task skills that are roughly divided into two: those needed for access to further education and those needed to function in some vocation or profession. The fourth is the development of a productive attitude, which is fostered by the development of a healthy and robust self-image."
Educational reform must take place at every each stage of development. The first is the Pre-School Stage, roughly up to six years of age, during which the initial discovery of the world is framed by what are known as Cultural Values.
The second stage is the Foundation Stage, where the skills needed to discover the world are acquired, including literacy and numeracy, the development of productive habits like reading and challenging the status quo and communication skills, especially verbal and written. At this stage, the delivery team includes the school, the family, the church and youth organizations.
The third stage is the development of socializing skills, for which the community looks to the primary and secondary school system. Supported by youth organizations and peer groups, they produce programs that deliver self-discipline, collaboration and perspective skills.
The fourth stage is the development of life-enhancing skills and the acquisition of vocation-related information. This is the stage at which we prepare for the tasks that will give our life meaning in the long run. This is a different kind of stage, in that its character and length is indeterminate. The delivery system comes from a wide range of agencies, including secondary and tertiary schooling, technical and vocational institutions, a variety of training facilities and the workplace.
The society is accustomed to some form of certification as recognition of the successful completion of each stage of development. The most common forms of certification are produced by the school system, but unfortunately the other agents -- the family, youth groups, the church and the like -- generally offer no certification, and therefore get less of society's respect in the education process. In fact, an educated person is thought to be one with these relevant credentials, as opposed to one who has developed the skills that allow successful, productive participation in the community's affairs.
The purpose for education is not altered by changes in the community's circumstance or the advances in technology. What changes are the delivery systems and the forms of certification? Fifty years ago, the prime delivery agents were the school, youth and church organizations, radio and the newspaper. Today, the school system is challenged by TV and the Internet, which provides online universities, digital libraries, cyber social clubs, children's networks and instructional cartoons. Further, in the past the delivery agents typically had restricted access, either by price or location.
Today many have almost unlimited access. The palette for the education planner has changed and expanded. But the purpose is still the same, and as a result, the job is still to use the delivery agents to deliver the relevant skills and knowledge, tailored to the four stages previously discussed.
In the first stage of development, when cultural values are acquired, there have been a number of important changes over the years. The first is the use of Day-care. Until the beginning of the 20th century, in The Bahamas it was a fair assumption that the child would spend most of the first six years of life under the direct influence of the extended family.
Concepts of right and wrong, fairness, family relationships and other values important to the working of the society were inculcated through interaction with a cohesive group, with shared value systems. A hundred years later, those concepts are delivered by a diverse group of agents and surrogates, including baby sitters, pre-school operators and sometimes social workers, each with their own agenda, independent of either the family or the educational administration.
The second major change in the delivery at this stage is the virtual demise of storybooks, like the Royal Reader, in the classroom for the propagation of values. Until about 40 years ago, they would have been a major device for the propagation of values. However the use of the storybook in the classroom has diminished. The education planner must rethink their delivery of cultural values in the classroom, since they must now do it without the use of storybooks, learning instead to use the current technology, not to support their effort, but as one of the primary delivery agents. From family to pre-school operators to producers of TV and Internet children's programs, their agenda must clearly be the inculcation of the community's values at the pre-school stage.
The second stage of development must address the creation of a foundation for discovering the world. At this time, the foundation skills are still the habit of reading, a basic aptitude with numbers, the ability to communicate verbally and in writing. However, time has added the ability to navigate cyberspace and to communicate in the language of the Internet. Finally, as the world shrinks, the ability to speak a number of languages has become essential. Planners must therefore design systems that guarantee that each child develops these basic skills, not allowing children to leave this stage without them.
The third stage builds upon the strong value system and foundation skills, developing strong socializing skills. If reading and calculation are foundation skills for discovering the world, then these socializing skills are foundation skills for conquering the world. For most education planners today, programs based upon a problem-solving or project-based approach are useful for the development of these skills.
To fully address the need for reform, a brief discussion of the principles that drive the curriculum must be undertaken. If the three stages above are to guide the process, the design of the curriculum must respect those same three stages. For example, at the preschool and primary stages, the curriculum must provide for the inculcation of the community's values. Selection of literature, games, projects and so forth, must be made for their use in transmitting specific community values.
Of course, these aspects of curriculum design are not unusual, and have been the norm for some time. But there is one aspect that has been overlooked. We have not, as a rule, addressed the need to deliver a robust self-image. It can reasonably be argued that excessive antisocial behavior, lack of civic pride and dependence on external approval are all signs of self-image issues, or low self-esteem.
The curriculum has shown little concern for the building blocks of self-image: a sense of history, spiritual development, conflict management and resolution, artistic expression, and so the society has grown increasingly unstable. The curriculum must address the needs of a self-image agenda if it is to prepare Bahamians for productive participation in national and global affairs.
The fourth stage of development, the development of the tools for life-enhancement, is a lifelong stage. Once the first three stages have been successful, the fourth becomes the pursuit of the individual for the rest of his life. With its commencement, the society has completed its role in the education of its citizens."
An incalculable chasm divides the theory and practice of our educational system. Until we fully recognize and appreciate this reality and earnestly engage in a national dialogue to bridge this dysfunctional divide, the ideal educational system will continuously elude us.
Philip C. Galanis is the managing partner of HLB Galanis & Co., Chartered Accountants, Forensic & Litigation Support Services. He served 15 years in Parliament. Please send your comments to pgalanis@gmail.com.
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