Barbados
Description
Barbados' response to school closure.
Context
The education system caters to 45,623 students in ECD, primary (25,039 students in both public and private schools) and secondary education (20,584 students in both public and private schools).
The system has 3,425 teachers (365 nursery, 1,469 primary, 57 special needs, and 1507 secondary teachers (MOE 2015/16).
There are 101 primary schools (Both public and private); 29 secondary schools (both public and private); and 10 public nursery and 14 private nursery centers. (a more detailed excel sheet with enrolment by grade is available).
This responsibility falls across departments and includes: The Information Technology and Quality Assurance Unit and the Media Resource Department.
Immediate response
As of April 23, 2020, schools were still closed.
June – CSEC, CVQ portfolios – secondary students will be able to attend school and class 4 students ready for BSSEE. For the rest of students, they continue to work on the on-line environment. The METVT has developed a protocol for the school opening in June. Preschools/ ECD centres were still closed. Daycare centres for children under the age of 3 – will open June 22, 2020.
Guidelines can be found in the following link:
https://gisbarbados.gov.bb/download/guidelines-for-the-safe-reopening-of-schools/
School reopening was announced for September 21st.
Schools were closed. Social services, like counseling were facilitated via calls.
Schools were not opened for the provision of school meals for the vulnerable population. However, the Social workers from the Ministry of Education who continued to work worked with some of these families through donations from the private sector, to provide much needed assistance.
The GOV of BA has a loan with IDB for Social Care that targets vulnerable population and provides support; as well as existing programs from the Ministry of Social Care that are also providing support services to vulnerable families.
Once a family is considered to be in need, the family gets support (independently of age of students – thus, including early chilhood education students) . Some schools also undertake fundraisers/ donations to help families in need (this is an initiative undertaken by individual schools)
According to the newspaper, the ministry launched Google G. Suite during the week of April 22, 2020. However, not all students have connectivity or devices; METVT has worked with providers to expand connectivity. The absence of devices is more serious now as more parents return to work and use their smartphone; leaving children without device. The METVT also estimates that about 6,500 devices are still needed. Donors responded to the call for devices and provided some.
Learning and communication platforms, digital content and websites,physical material, social networks as well as radio and TV were used for educational continuity.
The decision has been taken not to introduce any new concepts in the current environment but to consolidate topics taught in Term 1 &2. The Curriculum Department is working with the Media Resource Department, Nursery and Primary schools to develop content for the online environment. The support was not provided to house the content locally.
The Ministry worked with schools to develop a guiding timetable for the online environment. All schools have developed a timetable for the online environment. The schools will continue until July 24, 2020.
Support Tools
The Ministry is using content developed and stored on the Media Resource Department website, developed additional content.
Barbados indicates that it continues to use TV and Radio.
According to the newspaper, the ministry launched Google G Suite during the week of April 22, 2020. However, not all students have connectivity or devices; METVT has worked with providers to expand connectivity. The absence of devices is more serious now as more parents return to work and use their smartphone; leaving children without device. The METVT also estimates that about 6,500 devices are still needed.Donors resonded to the call for devices and provided some.
G Suite for Education is being utilized in the public system as platform to facilitate online learning.
While the G Suite platform provided the feature for developing formative assessments there is no formal assessment platform.
The facility is there under the G Suite for Education platform, using Google Meet.
Given that Barbados is English speaking, during past supervision visits it became clear that some schools/ parents subscribe to US programs/ platforms (such as IXL).
The Media Resource Department has been broadcasting education content via its radio station (see comment about SEA from TT).
The Ministry continues to work with teachers to develop content including the curriculum department. to air on the local TV station and Google G suite.
Connectivity
Public Sector reform is ongoing; METVT is included to digitize certain processes and implement an electronic document records management platform (EDRMS).
The METVT implemented OPEN EMIS in 2019 in all schools. It is still working on getting all schools to use the system but it is a great step forward. The METVT had a previous EMIS system but had problems with the provider.
The Ministry of Education is working with private internet providers to expand internet access. SIM cards will be distributed to students
Challenges
- Connectivity is less of an issue now but some households are still not connected. METVT provided more than 500 devices allowing students to connect to the internet.
- METVT has trained 100 Information Technology Coordinators (ITC) in the utilization of G Suite for Education platform. The ITCs are required to train the teachers in their respective schools.
The Ministry supplemented this training to ITCs by providing training for 250 teacher who required additional or first time training. Teachers support each other in the current environment. METVT continues to provide support to teachers. The ICT coordinators also support teachers and students in the on-line environment. - In total 96 % of the teachers in the public system have been trained on the platform.
- The Ministry has also created a manual and videos to guide teachers and parents:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLoPt8kJ0mVFZdV2la0nfAJ9g7Fs-1m4n
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLoPt8kJ0mVGvvBKrXJ0NppIjrSmfsm15
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLoPt8kJ0mVHR09IaLD1RlB-VHqz2RMN-
METVT sent out additional videos for students on connecting devices to the Google Classroom G-suite.
The METVT continues to use Radio, TV, and on-line resources to reach students. METVT purchased the SEA content from TT targeting 4th graders taking the BSSEE.
Reopening
School reopening was announce for September 21st.
Plans and protocols were considered for it.
No response at this time. There are some in class instruction (for the groups mentioned above) and some on-line/ remotely.
The METVT decided for primary and secondary students to be promoted to the next grade. The discussion is ongoing of how students will transfer from CAPE to university. CXC has decided to not do the paper II (long paper) as part of the CAPE exams. CSEC – CXC will not do all parts of the exam (only paper 1 =multiple choice) and School based assessment. Students complete their project and submit to the teacher.