By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune News Editor

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

NATIONAL Security Minister Wayne Munroe said yesterday the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) must grapple with the same post-COVID realities that have already prompted a review of Defence Force entry requirements.

Police applicants must have at least four BGCSEs at grade “C” or above, or pass the Police Academy’s Entrance Examination in English language, mathematics, and general knowledge with a grade “C” or above.

Mr Munroe, asked whether police recruitment standards will change as with the Defence Force, stressed that the RBPF is governed differently but acknowledged that educational setbacks during the pandemic cannot be ignored.

“The police force is slightly different,” he said. “The Commissioner of Police is responsible, by the act, for the complete governance of the force. I have spoken with them about the need to address certain realities.”

He noted that students who should have earned BJCs and BGCSEs during the height of the pandemic were disadvantaged by disrupted schooling and would soon form part of the country’s recruitment pool.

“So, at some point, the young people who should have been getting their BJCs, BGCSEs during COVID, when we had an altered reality in education, are going to come up as a pool of people to be recruited, and they will have to determine, how do you deal with them?” he said. “If educational achievements fell during the COVID period, then you would put yourself behind the eight ball if you don’t take that into account.”

He said literacy and numeracy must remain the foundation for recruits, but rigid academic benchmarks could exclude candidates with valuable skills.

Mr Munroe pointed to an earlier example in the Defence Force, where a young man with four BJCs and a certificate in small engine repair was barred from recruitment for lacking a fifth BJC.

“His fifth BJC could have been in beekeeping, could have been in looking at the sun, could have been in anything, whereas he would have been disenfranchised, where he has a skill that they really need, which is being able to work on small engine repairs,” he said.

He added that the Defence Force now recognises the need to target skilled mechanics to service vessels, generators, and other critical equipment.