A veteran educator says there is evidence some of the 11-year-olds who took a controversial Computer Science pre-test last week were left traumatised.Sandie Field-Kellman, who has been teaching for over 28 years, revealed that several of the students she teaches privately had shown signs of being adversely affected by questions in the pre-test, which was an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)-administered survey.“Those children need to be shown some kind of balance to this situation that took place,” Field-Kellman told Barbados TODAY after making the disclosure on Friday.Parents and members of the public have expressed outrage about the questionnaire which was administered to first-formers at five secondary schools without parental consent. It quizzed students on their sexuality, gender identity, and mental state, among other things.Commenting on the issue during the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Astor B Watts Lunchtime Lecture series on Friday afternoon, Field-Kellman said there
Scores of parents and concerned members of the public gathered at Trevor’s Way, Princess Alice Highway, St Michael on Saturday morning to protest against the controversial pre-test questionnaire which was recently administered to 733 first form students across six secondary schools on the island. Amongst the protestors was attorney-at-law Corey Beckles, retired educator/trade unionist Undene Whittaker and social activists Felicia Dujon and Winston Clarke. The latter, wearing a shirt saying …
Both Education Minister Kay McConney and Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw should be suspended while a public enquiry is conducted into how the controversial Computer Science test was administered in local schools.That is the view of human rights advocate Felicia Dujon, who is also imploring parents of students affected by the test to bring a class action lawsuit against the Government.Dujon, a lecturer in Philosophy at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, has contended that even though apologies were tendered by McConney, Dr Archer-Bradshaw and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), for their mistakes which led to 733 11-year-olds being questioned about their sexuality and gender identity, there was a need for an investigation.She told Barbados TODAY it meant that both the minister and the Chief Education Officer should be “placed on leave” until those investigations were completed.“Parents should request a public enquiry into the matter becau
Neither the pending tough legislation that will carry harsh penalties for persons who abuse senior citizens nor any other single solution will be enough to stamp out the scourge, says Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, Kirk Humphrey.Speaking during the Barbados Association of Retired Persons (BARP) online discussion on Elderly Abandonment: Solutions to this Issue, on Monday, he said that while targeted legislation is on the way to provide more protection for seniors, more will be required.“The penalties and so on written into the legislation to prevent a person from doing a misdeed is not where we need to start. If we are serious about protecting elderly people, it cannot be the legislation. We have to have a much more holistic view as to the challenges facing older people,” Humphrey said.“I feel this is a conversation we need to be having within our schools, in relation to how you treat people generally, and how do you treat older people more specifically. I feel
The head of the Barbados Association of Retired Persons is advocating for more adult day care facilities.
BARP president, Marilyn Rice-Bowen made the appeal during a panel discussion on elderly abandonment on Monday, July 11 via Zo