The Ministry of Education Transformation must urgently explain why the island’s private schools are outperforming public educational institutions, the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) has demanded.
BUT President Rudy Lovell questioned the widening performance gap highlighted in Monday’s examination results, labelling any direct comparison between the two sectors “unfair” due to stark differences in resources, parental involvement, and infrastructural disruptions.
The private Anglican school, St Gabriel’s, provided both the top boy and girl in the Common Entrance examination, the ministry announced on Monday. No further details on the distribution of high marks among private and public schools were made available.
”There are several other variables that may contribute to the divide between the public school and the private school in terms of the examination mark,” Lovell said. “But I would like the ministry to tell us what, in their opinion, may be causing the private schools to overperform the public schools.”
While acknowledging that teachers in both sectors are highly qualified, Lovell suggested that private schools benefit from superior funding and resource allocation. This is despite the government allocating approximately five per cent of the nation’s GDP to education, consistently among the highest in the Americas.
According to the union leader, public school educators are routinely forced to dip into their own pockets to keep their classrooms functioning.
”The private schools, in our opinion, may be better resourced than the public schools,” Lovell said. “Teachers are usually the ones who provide a lot of funding for education in Barbados… when it comes to resources, teachers have to spend a significant amount of money purchasing resources. Is that the same in the private school? I don’t know.”
Lovell also highlighted a disparity in parental engagement, adding that whilst there is parental support in state schools, it “could be greatly enhanced” to match the heavy parental involvement seen in the private sector.
The BUT chief heavily criticised the ongoing infrastructural issues plaguing public schools, pointing out that environmental closures have severely disrupted the academic year for state students—a challenge private school pupils rarely face.
”I think the comparison is an unfair comparison in my opinion. Both schools are following the curriculum as outlined by the Ministry of Education, but there are some variables.
“For example, when was the last time you heard of a private school being closed for environmental issues? Public schools throughout the whole school year have been closing continuously with regard to environmental issues.”
The union leader also expressed concern over the continuous downward trend regarding the performance of boys compared to girls.
When asked if enough was being done to support male students, Lovell said “more can be done” and urged the ministry to overhaul classroom staffing structures.
”One of the things that we would want to see is public schools with specialised teachers,” Lovell urged. “For example, specialised teachers in maths, English, reading, etcetera.”
(RR)
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