The long-standing dominance of elite schools in Barbados’ national scholarship awards is set to change, Minister of Educational Transformation Chad Blackman has pledged, vowing that reforms will soon give every secondary institution a fair shot at top academic honours.
“Excellence can and does come from anywhere,” he declared on Friday, following the official announcement ceremony of the Scholarship and Exhibition winners for 2025. Conceding that some schools have long dominated scholarships, Blackman insisted that transformation is underway to give all schools a fair shot.
Blackman’s comments came amid questions about whether the recurring dominance of elite schools Harrison College, Queen’s College and The St Michael School in scholarship results points to deep-rooted disparities in the education system and highlights the need for reform.
“This year’s results, to my mind, represent the hard work of students, first of all, in doing their exams and getting the results that we have today,” Blackman said.
“And I think when you look at [schools] across the country, we have committed teachers, we have committed principals who are working with them. What we have to do now is to buckle down and ensure that that can continue going forward.”
This year’s awards went to students from Harrison’s, Queen’s, St Michael’s and Barbados Community College (BCC), which have traditionally been among the top performers.
Blackman admitted that historical pattern but said it should not overshadow broader progress or fuel perceptions of imbalance.
“Sometimes you might have a Foundation School, sometimes they get scholarships or exhibitions, sometimes The Lodge School. It depends on the year. So we must not focus on what school is getting it. We must encourage all schools and their teachers and their principals to aim for excellence in that,” Blackman said.
He said the ministry’s transformation agenda will focus on closing gaps and pushing every school to achieve its potential.
“The Ministry of Educational Transformation is going to be going forward to make sure that we work with [each school], setting them on high ambitions as part of that transformation,” he said.
“Even though it is not a sixth form, when you look at a school like St George Secondary School, a school that has transformed itself in an incredible way, it tells a story that excellence can and does come from anywhere.”
Blackman said some schools without sixth form programmes are excelling at the CSEC level, which feeds into advanced studies at sixth forms and BCC, and predicted that the list of scholarship winners will become more diverse.
“I believe more and more we’re going to see a wider cross-section of schools being able to get the scholarships and exhibitions,” he said.
“Because when I look at what is happening even at the CXC level, which is of course the feeder into the sixth form and also the BCC, a lot of the schools which were not sixth form schools are doing incredibly well.”
He reaffirmed that the ministry’s priority is equity, noting: “We must not just focus on which schools are getting [the scholarships], but how do we ensure that every school has the ability to do so,” Blackman said.
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