Minister of Education Transformation Chad Blackman encouraged students of Daryll Jordan Secondary School to learn a new language as the school unveiled a mural celebrating Spanish language and culture and a partnership with Argentina on Tuesday.
Blackman said Barbados’ push towards becoming a bilingual country would require students to look beyond English and develop the ability to communicate in other languages.
“You may recall that this government [set] a very bold and clear agenda, that within the next five to six years, we want Barbados to be a multilingual country, and in particular, bilingual in English and in Spanish,” he told the Trents, St Lucy school.
Learning another language could expand opportunities for young Barbadians, regardless of the career they eventually pursue, Blackman said.
“Preparing you for the world means that it’s not just about the qualifications that you will get here at school,” he said. “It also means that you must be given the tools to be able to have a conversation, negotiate business, go anywhere in the world and to be able to communicate your thoughts, ideas… feelings, and concepts.
“When you start to understand and appreciate that you can navigate that world through their language, it opens up a wider set of possibilities for you,”
The minister also urged secondary schools to prepare for the next stage of the government’s bilingual push, which calls for their websites to be available in both English and Spanish by next September.
Blackman pointed to the Spanish Opens More Opportunities (SOMOS) programme launched by the CAF – Development Bank of Latin America, through which 15 students and 10 teachers participated in an immersive experience in Panama in April, as an example of how exposure beyond the classroom can strengthen language learning.
Blackman said: “It is one thing to learn Spanish in class. It is one thing to learn Spanish in a controlled environment, whether that be a teacher teaching you or you’re doing it online, but there is nothing better and more real than being in the actual environment and culture itself.”
Drawing on his experience as a French student at Barbados Community College, he recalled an immersion in Martinique where he lived with a family that spoke no English and worked at the airport.
What Blackman spoke was a “very old-timeish type of French”, he recalled. “But by day four, day five, I had made some errors, I was corrected, and I learned on the ground in real time.”
The experience made him a better French speaker, and his tutor noticed his improvement, he said.
Argentina’s Ambassador to Barbados, Ciro Ciliberto, echoed the push for language learning, telling the students that languages had played a significant role in opening opportunities throughout his own life.
“I understood the importance of knowing another language,” he said. “Another language opens your mind to other things that you won’t see if you only know your own language.”
Ambassador Ciliberto recalled studying English, Italian and German before later travelling to the United States and Italy, experiences he said that broadened his horizons and ultimately contributed to his career with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Buenos Aires.
“I’m not a hero. I’m just a regular person coming from a small town in Argentina, from a regular family. But it’s languages which opened to me the world,” he said.
“If I had not known English, I wouldn’t be here today. And if I had not known Italian, I wouldn’t have been in Italy and wouldn’t have joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
He encouraged the students to take advantage of the opportunities that come with learning Spanish, particularly given Barbados’ location in a region surrounded by Spanish-speaking countries.
“You have to be prepared to take advantage of knowing Spanish and to be able to do things that you wouldn’t have done if you did not know Spanish,” Ambassador Ciliberto said.
He stressed that while governments and schools could provide the necessary tools, students themselves had to make the effort.
“It’s for you to see how you can improve your knowledge of the language,” he said.
Ambassador Ciliberto added: “You can study French, you can study Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, whatever you would like to, but do it.
“And that will help you as a person. It will help you in your career and will help your country.”
The mural reflected the language focus, which Principal Ken Layne said the school’s Modern Languages Department conceptualised and brought to life through the combined efforts of teachers, students, artists and the wider community.
Principal of Daryll Jordan Ken Layne. (Photo Credit: Lauryn Escamilla)
He credited the acting head of department, the substantive head and a department member, saying their vision had “extended Spanish beyond the classroom and demonstrated that language, culture, art, and education can come together to create meaningful experiences for our students”.
The mural represented more than an artistic addition to the school, the principal said.
“It celebrates vision, creativity, collaboration, and talent. Most importantly, it reflects what can be achieved when the talents of our teachers, students, and the wider community come together with common purpose.”
The mural also reinforced the school’s motto, Every talent to greatest use, by showing students that education extends beyond traditional classroom learning, he added.
“This mural embodies that philosophy,” Layne said. “It tells the students that their creativity has value, their ideas have value, their contributions have value, and their education is not confined to textbooks, classrooms, or examinations.”
The Daryll Jordan Secondary School Steel Orchestra. (Photo Credit: Lauryn Escamilla)
The principal said the project also strengthened the school’s relationship with Argentina and the wider Spanish-speaking world, helping the students to see beyond Barbados.
As education minister Blackman unveiled the mural, he said the project should serve as a signal of the direction Daryll Jordan and the wider education system should take.
“And therefore, this unveiling this morning serves as a representation not just to the school and the wider community here… but to the rest of Barbados as to what this school is doing.”
He challenged the school to continue its progress while encouraging students to use their talents to prepare themselves for opportunities beyond Barbados.
“Daryll Jordan must continue its purpose in preparing these young people to be able to navigate life, to give them the tools and the skills, not just in English, not just in Spanish, but to believe that they can do anything around the world.”
(LE)
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