Marketing expert to lead Education Council
(CNS): Shomari Scott, the chief business officer at Health City and former DoT director, has been appointed as chair of the Education Council. His appointment comes at a time when the minister is investing heavily in education, including a significant increase in scholarships and free meals for all students, and as government schools are beginning to turn around when it comes to inspections and results. Since the announcement that the marketing expert is taking the helm at the council, he has said that education and healthcare are two of the most important pillars of a community.
Scott said that he has previously served on the UCCI board and his business experience will help him in the new appointment to help with the strategies to develop the human resources for the country’s future. But when he appeared on a talk show on Monday, he also noted, “I come from a long line of teachers.”
Scott said there have been some significant improvements already in education and he intended to work on continuing that progress.
Last week during Finance Committee the education ministry’s budget was increased by CI$12.5 million to cover the new costs. This was around a 10% increase on the year’s overall budget for education, which is running in excess of $125 million this year, one of the largest public spending areas.
See the new Education Council line-up in the CNS Library.
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Category: Education, Local News
It is not clear to me why the Education Council needs a Marketing Expert.
It’s a disservice to Shomari to reduce him to solely a “marketing expert”
I agree 12:43.
I applaud his appointment.
Shomari is a stand up individual whom I’ve had the opportunity to observe in action and learn from.
Here’s to Shomari making a positive impact in his community!
It’s not clear to me why the Education Council exists.
Suggestions: Make sure kids are fed; teach math and reading relentlessly at all levels; take religion out of schools; Ban staff led exorcisms
2 words for scholarships.
MEANS TESTS
Unless you are a senior civil servant or calling in political favors.
That is one word. CORRUPTION.
It is so prevalent as to be mainstream. I now have nothing but disdain for our so called “robust law enforcers.” Standards in public life is easy, when you have no standards.
Just look at cabinet status grants , not to those who go through the process, but to those persons with appropriate connections.
Absolutely, but no investigation, or ANYTHING. It is if all those in charge of laws and standards got cabinet grants themselves.
…oh wait..,,
Shit!
Means testing is the least of the problems. I don’t mind using our government taxes to help educate someone whose parents could perhaps afford to pay for it, as government taxes continue to be squandered on far worse than that.
The real problem is using our money for these kids to get the “college experience” and come back four years later without an education.
It’s ok by me for government to pay for every college/university education, if that is indeed what they get out of it. But I work in the private sector where scholarships are offered and quite frankly I am disgusted at the number of young kids who apply for scholarships with terrible grades, (sadly, some of them have college acceptance letters) and act as if they are doing you a favour by offering to take the scholarship money.
After a rigorous, thorough and transparent selection process most likely.
Our public education system seems to be peppered with big budget spending that places more emphasis on ‘cosmetics’ than on holding to account individuals. We need to drastically improve the quality of leadership and seriously improve teaching and learning.
Todays leaders appear to be driven by numbers and have lost touch with the fact that schools are made up of many diverse individuals who need to be noticed and understood. I sometimes feel that schools are run by computer programmes not creative, innovative and motivated minds.
Do they just throw darts at a board to pick people for these posts?
Take the religion out of schools.
Focus on math, science, reading, art etc.
Make standards, based on the best schools. Close down the ones that do not meet that standard.
Look at the model of public schools in Finland.
Do people who make comments like this realize that both Dan Scott and Shomari Scott are products of the very same education system you are denigrating?
As are thousands of successful Caymanians.
2:29 True that they are products of government schools but the education system has gone down DRASTICALLY since that! I graduated in the early 1990s and the change is huge since then….academically and behaviourally.
I went to CIHS and had a great experience there, had outstanding GCSE passes and was very successful in college but if I was sending kids to school right now, no way would they go to public schools.
Actually they are products of the British Education system we used to have the benefit of in Government Schools. Not the Jamaican/Trinidadian version we have now.
Bingo. The system now is crap. Totally centered on Jamaica and Trinidad. All the children are taught even English classes take their writings from Trinidad and Jamaica. The great classics like William Shakespeare and other great authors should be read. The children probably don’t even know who they are. That is another thing… World History needs to be taught. Geography is supposed to be maps instead it is Science. Repetitive of subjects another pet peeve of mine. As for Religion, eliminate it. If it was teaching different beliefs and should include Atheism and all of the other isms that would be fine but instead it is about abortion and end of life decisions.
$125 million to be spent on education this year. Let’s assume that this is only for public education programs. How many school-aged Caymanians are these programs meant to support? Our of maybe 30,000 Caymanians, let’s say 6,000 are in the public education system. $125 million a year to educate 6,000 people. In a wealthy nation, with such a huge budget for public education, why aren’t Caymanian public school kids among the best educated in the world? That huge budget, coupled with the huge private sector resources (Big 4 accounting firms, top offshore law firms, Dart, international hotel chains, etc.), Cayman’s public school system should be one of the best in the world. Yet, we settle for mediocrity, at best. What are we doing wrong??
We operate to Caribbean rather than Global standards. That is a significant part of the issue.
I hate comments like these because the education system has come a long way. Unfortunately some caymanians are yet to see the importance of a proper education and so do not seriously pursue education after the secondary level.
Please clarify your objections to this appointment by citing specifics. I don’t mean to be rude but the blanket statement that the Education Department is so institutionalized creates more fog than sunlight. The Education Department, Ministry, Education Council have a mandate to prepare our students for the 21st century. The digital age is here. This is not a one man assignment as you inferred. It would take the collaborative efforts of all stakeholders to see us to that promised land. Begin with sincere consultations and drop all the egos at the door. I’ll check back next year.
Sadly, this appointment will not make a difference just as having Dan Scott at the helm made no difference. Both are lovely fellows but the Cayman education system is so institutionalized to fail that unless it is completely blown up nothing will change.
The quality of “Education” for Caymanians is determined by the competence of regional Caribbean teachers who introduce their homeland’s standards , to a future workforce who will have to compete with real world standards.
You have Roy and Truman to thank for that.
Mostly Roy who had a penchant for West Indian (ie black) teachers because he thought they would understand our kids better.
I think he missed the point that it is the kids who must understand their teachers.
So why is that those students in the other regions are thriving and are able to adapt in any country while the caymanian child is unable to? Ain’t it the same Caribbean teacher that’s teaching them? I think you need to look closer at home before you place blame on others. Also, I’ve never meet a past student that went on to study, at the tertiary level, a subject that their European teacher taught them in high school.
Thank you.
6.16, High schools don’t teach law accounting banking Architecture engineering and so on.
All those who have these and other professions did not study them in high school.
Missed dig at European teachers..?