Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Science and Technology, the Hon. Chester Cooper led a delegation on a school assessment tour to Andros on Friday.
Mr. Cooper assured parents that schools are ready. He said, “we are committed to providing a safe environment. We are energetic. We’re enthusiastic about what lies ahead. We’re going to be continuing to innovate.”
There are more than 60 special education units operating currently. The ministry is working to enhance this effort. Cooper said, “we bring our assessment teams in, that will happen soon, and we really get a full understanding of what the needs are. In the meantime, we are consistently building capacity all across the country.”
The minister also addressed teacher recruitment. He said, “we’ve done an orientation for more than one hundred and thirty new teachers. Each day we are enlisting more. As a result of our plea for teachers to come forward we’ve seen many who had left the service working in hotels etc. they are returning to the service. We’ve attracted a large number of foreign teachers as well, many of them are still in the pipeline because of the vetting process.”
The education ministry and the Royal Bahamas Police Force School Policing Division have taken a zero tolerance approach to violence on school campuses. “We’ve done a tremendous job in reducing violence in schools over the last several years. With the support of ACP Hanna (Assistant Commissioner of Police Dr. Chaswell Hanna) and the teams of resource officers from the Royal Bahamas Police Force, with the help of our security teams and really with the work of our teachers who engage with students properly to let them know they’re not just in school to pass exams, they are here to become better citizens.
Cooper expects to be on the ground as students around the country return to the classrooms.
