By RIEL MAJOR

Tribune Staff Reporter 

rmajor@tribunemedia.net

PLP Senator Dr Michael Darville said Education Minister Jeffrey Lloyd has a “duty to address this decline” after this year’s poor examination results. 

In a press statement yesterday, Dr Darville, PLP shadow minister of health and education, said the Lloyd’s poor leadership as well as his attempts at intimidating and threatening educators have created a toxic mix in the public school system that have adversely impacted scholastic performance and education outcomes.

“This has hurt our children and if it is not arrested could have negative implications for us as a nation. Minister Lloyd has a duty to address this decline in scholarship and outline a strategy to reverse this trend. A good place to start is to create an environment that is conducive to learning,” Dr Darville noted.  

“Fewer students have reportedly sat the core BGCSE subjects of Maths, English and Science and there was a decrease in the number of students who secured at least a grade of C in these core subjects.” 

“The Education Minister was very critical of the PLP’s handling of public education, branding the Christie government as careless and negligent, characterising our education system as being in crisis and claimed to have the answers to our education woes. During his tenure as Minister, we are seeing a deterioration in the quality of education.” 

Dr Darville added: “Schools have not opened on time for the start of the new school year due to delays in required repairs and the minister has failed to resolve a number of outstanding labour issues with the Bahamas Union of Teachers. There have also been reports of unsafe and unhealthy work environments which have led to demonstrations, strike votes, walkouts and sit outs by teachers.” 

Last week, the newly released results of this year’s Bahamas Junior Certificate (BJC) and Bahamas General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE)  were released which showed fewer students scored at least a C grade in score subjects Mathematics, English and Science. 

A total of 484 candidates fell into this category. This represented a decrease of 1.22 percent when compared with 2018. That year, 490 students scored at least a C.

The scores have got progressively worse and were released much later than is customary. Additionally, the number of candidates receiving a minimum or five subjects or more with a D grade or higher decreased.

This year 1,213 candidates attained a minimum of D in at least five subjects, representing a 9.34 percent decrease from the results of 2018.

The Bahamas Junior Certificate scores were not better with an 18.36 percent decrease in the number of students who scored at least a C grade in math, English language and science. 

In 2018, 1,552 candidates scored at least a C and 1,326 were in 2017.

Those who achieved a D grade in five or more subjects were also lower.

This year, 2,176 candidates achieved a minimum of D, a 6.17 percent decrease when compared with 2018’s 2,319.