MP Lewis calls for closer attention to be given to public schools so they, too, can excel at CSEC level
Although there were four top performers in the three top spots of
the 2023 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate Examinations
(CSEC), MP Richard Lewis is convinced that more students can
perform well given the requisite resources.
All four students were from private secondary schools – the St.
Joseph’s Academy and the Baptist Academy.
Accordingly, Lewis is reflecting on the many challenges plaguing the
education system, particularly the public schools: from severe
overcrowding to low proficiency in Math and English.
He laments that, currently, approximately eight out of every 10
students do not qualify for direct university matriculation, and he
says it is time for meaningful solutions.
Lewis is suggesting that the Ministry of Education engage the
Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) and initiate a regional
conversation on the way forward, especially with regard to the
perennial problem with mathematics.
According to Lewis, there is also an urgent need to institute
remedial programmes in maths and English and to institute an
ongoing “mathematics boot camp,” with intensified focus at the
Fourth and Fifth Form levels.
He notes, as well, that reducing overcrowding across the school
system will enhance learning outcomes and reduce conflicts. It is
time to stop paying mere lip service to this critical need, the MP
says.
Lewis points to one school in particular, the Ottos Comprehensive
School, which celebrates its 50 th anniversary this year.
He believes that this school has been wantonly neglected, with the
long-promised expansion remaining undelivered year after year.
“To add insult to injury,” he says the Gaston Browne Administration
has budgeted for design fees, but not for any construction, and the
evidence can be found on page 256 of the 2024 Budget Estimates.
The MP is also calling for the reintroduction of an old discipline
called “civics” to teach – among other things – the rights and
obligations of the Constitution of Antigua and Barbuda.
Meanwhile, Lewis says he is looking forward to the promises
reiterated at the second UWI Five Islands Expansion consultation
that was held in late 2023:
A preschool is to be constructed in the Rural West constituency; tbe
primary school is to be relocated; and a new secondary school is to
be built – along with the expansion of UWI.
Taking into account the consistent claims that the Nation values and
respects its teachers, Lewis is calling on the Browne Administration
to pay those who were sent home for refusing the COVID-19
vaccines.
They are owed their salaries for September and October 2021.
