Premier points to basic flaw in current education law
(CNS): Like many laws that desperately need replacing, the new education bill may not be perfect but is a massive improvement on the untenable situation presented by the current 33-year-old law, which is outdated and offers no real legal support for the education minister to implement education policy, Premier Alden McLaughlin has said. Speaking in the Legislative Assembly Tuesday during the day-long debate on the bill, which was brought by Education Minister Tara Rivers, McLaughlin spelled out the pressing need for a new law to support government policy and modernise the education system.
The current legislation was originally written in the 1980’s at a time when public servants and the governor managed much of government rather than elected officials. As a result, the fundamental flaw with the old legislation is that it still vests the responsibility for education policy and management with the Education Council and makes no mention of either the chief officer or even the minister having any say, in breach of the Constitution.
McLaughlin said he had addressed the issue when he was education minister by passing a new law through the LA with unanimous support in 2009. But when Rolston Anglin took over the ministry following the UDP’s election win later that year, the law was pulled and never came into effect.
The premier said that Anglin had “laboured under” the old law, even though he had supported the modernisation bill in 2009.
“I suspect in his effort to demean and belittle every achievement of mine …and anything that occurred under my watch, Rolston Anglin decided to let the children and the education system suffer before he would concede that there needed to be change,” the premier said in the second attack this week on the former education minister, who has recently announced his return to the political fray.
The premier added that he did not know how Anglin was “able to sleep at night” during the four years he was minister without dealing with the legislation.
McLaughlin pointed out the significance of the old legislation being unconstitutional and the problem all education ministers face: they must “take the licks” but they have none of the authority in law for even policy, let alone the management of education. He said that for as long as he could remember, the education minister had been held responsible by the public for education policy, but the post does not have that responsibility because the minister is not accountable in law for either the failures or successes.
Dismissing criticisms from the opposition benches about the law, McLaughlin said, “People like to talk about accountability but this law confers real accountability and gives real responsibility to the minister for development and implementation of education policy.”
He said it was critically important that Cayman had a modern law and noted that the new bill begins by setting out the duties and responsibilities of the minister. McLaughlin said this piece of legislation had changed somewhat since the law he drafted was passed but its genesis was in that 2009 legislation.
“But here we are, late in the day …and I won’t say it is perfect,” he said, noting that he had not paid as much attention to the drafting as he would have liked because of his other responsibilities, despite stating that education was still his “greatest passion”.
The premier said he knew that the current minister and the former ministry councillor, Winston Connolly, were passionate about education too, and said he was really disappointed that Connolly, who had quit the PPM and joined the opposition, had not equalled his commitment to make change and stuck it out until the end.
McLaughlin said that once the law was passed, the education minister would finally be responsible for education. He said it was well past time for the country to have a modern framework established by proper legislation for this critical area to pave the way for the eventual success of a state-of-the-art education system for Cayman. He acknowledged there was some way to go to get things right in education but it was moving forward.
Despite being the only piece of legislation on debate yesterday, it had still not concluded when the house adjourned around 9pm.
Education Minister Tara Rivers was expected to wind up on the subject ahead of the vote when the House reconvened this morning (Wednesday 19 October).
Category: Local News
If Alden was pointing to a basic flaw, them he was most certainly looking in the mirror.
Let me remind you, it is called integrity.
To be called a Caymanian politician is worse than being called a useless lump of rotting bat turd.
There is however one thing they all have in common. Their personal wealth has increased as a result of their public “service”.
Can I call upon the Caymanians of integrity to put aside your fears, embrace the values that you know to be true and drain the swamp that is the LA.
Bring up the kids to hate authority including their own parents. Then blame the schools. Repeat.
Read the LA Official Hansard Reports – VERY rarely were any items, questions or motions ever brought forward by ANY elected leaders for the past decade or more; or any of the said that would have proven to be beneficial for the students and staff and not for the members potential for additional votes alone.
However; there are quite a few discussions and topics related to development, investors, tourism and finance.
It has been very easy since the early 60’s for this country, its people and its leaders to concentrate solely on matters which they felt were direct benefactors to the country’s growth and economy – not counting on the fact that a poorly educated local population with decomposing family values could sling Cayman off the world charts as financial leader and a handful of home-grown criminals could alter (for the worst) the world’s and its investors perspective of Cayman and therefore negatively affect the bottom line anyway.
Denial and blame has been the constant “remedy” brought forward by each and every elected Government when it came to the situation with our children’s education; denial and blame has also been the “remedy” brought forward by many parents… it takes a village to raise a child – nothing can be done when everyone is pointing a finger.
Great news for expats as they will be needed to do the work Caymanians can’t for the next few generations at least. Thanks CIG.
Education Curriculum; talk about that.
He criticises Anglin for not implementing the law that he drafted, but then he leaves it on the shelf himself for another 3 years
Exactly! Thank you.
It just passed though…
What impacts our children is poor teaching, ineffective management, lack of cpd, and an Education Department that is not for for purpose with its petty rivaleries and bullying together with lack of parental support. Fix these and the children’s educational attainment may well rise. Policies do not change systems, people do.
The word is “rivalries”. I’m sorry but this is the only item in the above paragraph upon which I can comment. The rest is poor rhetoric. I feel uncomfortable with the thread. I just hope that the students are supported at home by their families. Pure and simple. There would be competitive rivalries amongst parents seeking the best for their children if the family participation in the high school sector was as important as it is in the private sector. A dejected educator!
Oh dear oh dear oh dear…I see we are going the US election route…a race to the bottom….blaming XYZ for not doing something when they themselves have done nothing since they have been in power. Education should be the top priority for any government-the Children getting the best education they can is the only thing that can improve these islands. A lot of proof of that point is sitting in the LA right now, uneducated, bigoted and taking Cayman nowhere.
Elections coming
Please forget about this “state of the art” bullsh*t – that’s what got us into financial trouble at Clifton Hunter. Simply take a look at the layouts and facilities offered at Prep, Catholic and CIS, to name a few, and that will provide you with a suitable blueprint and checklist for moving forward. This should be sufficient to produce people with a good education and a knowledge of civility and their role in society, and expectations of their behaviour by society. Please don’t castigate me for generalising – I am limited by space – I know that there are many respectable, responsible kids produced by the public schools; but they would shine in schools modeled on the three mentioned above.
You can take very basic buildings and once you fill them with motivated children whose supportive parents have instilled discipline and respect in them, you will get great results. Our public schools are filled with wild hooligans from the lower socio -economic class whose parents don’t give a damn about education and who have done nothing for their kids apart from the brief act of creating them (and in the case of the father moving on to someone else and creating another…and another …and…).
Thank you 7:39pm! Well said.
Interesting this issue is only being raised as we enter the run up to the next election. The Hon Premier has had over three years to tackle it – why the delay?
How exactly did this make the children suffer? Politics is such bullshit
The all powerful Education Council was filled with and chaired by fundamentalist Southern USA-type Bible Belt people whose ideal education system was assembly then devotions then religious education classes then more devotions and more religious education. They spent their time worrying about what they thought was ungodliness in the schools and coming up with unenforeceable codes of conduct for teachers which would make even monks and nuns laugh.
Just privatize it all. Give every able Caymanian child a $10K voucher every year and let their parents choose which school to spend it at. Government should then cater to special needs children and concentrate on vocational programs. It would save tens of millions, ensure better education, desegregate our schools and actually give young people a proper foundation from which to succeed (or fail). Right now we are actively destroying their potential.
This, right here, is the problem with ‘charter schools’ or any form of that idea in practice. Make the public (via govt. taxes) pay private companies’ profits while leaving the public to continue paying for the ‘special needs’ and ‘vocational’ students (via govt. taxes). – Keep profit out of public education.
2nd problem in practice is that many charter schools in US & UK are failing as badly as their public schools. Privatization is not a panacea and if education authorities (anywhere in the world) do not address the fundamental issues (take your pick) then you will still have failing students in failing schools (and a lot of wasted money spent) whether they are public or private.
Nonsense. The savings will more than pay for special needs and vocational classes.