Home-school numbers climb with lack of school spaces
(CNS): At the end of this academic year, 141 students were registered in home-school programmes, according to the Department of Education Services, but numerous social media posts suggest that one of the main reasons is that parents are struggling to find places for their children in local schools, both public and private. Over 100 of the children staying home to learn are locals, either Caymanians or long-term residents. However, parents say resources are improving, and there are more opportunities for the kids to mix.
| Home Schooled Children 2022/2023 Academic Year by Immigration Status | ||
| Immigration Status | No. of Students | |
| Caymanian/Status Holder | 85 | |
| Dependent of Caymanian | 1 | |
| Permanent Resident Dependent | 17 | |
| Work Permit Dependent | 35 | |
| Non-Caymanian Civil Servant Dependent | 3 | |
| Total: | 141 | |
Under the Education Act, 2016, all children in Cayman between the ages of five and 17 must be in full-time education, either in school or registered as a home-schooler. A DES spokesperson told CNS that it is the parents or guardians who have the primary responsibility to ensure that their children are educated.
“Ensuring whether or not people are sending their children to school or have them registered to home school is something that the Ministry and Department are conscious that requires a multifaceted and multi-agency approach,” DES said in response to CNS questions. “For children who are dependents of ex-pat workers, their work permit will state that their dependents have to attend school.”
Children should be in school or registered as soon as possible once families are legally resident in the Cayman Islands, DES said. “The timing of this and when the next academic year begins would need to be considered as, for example, it wouldn’t necessarily make sense for a student to join a school in term 3 when the academic year is almost complete.”
Some parents want to home-school their children as a primary choice, while others use it as a stopgap as they wait for a space for their child in a particular school, according to Kathleen Spencer, a local parent involved in Cayman’s home-school network.
“Both public and private schools in Grand Cayman have reached capacity and have wait lists, and many parents are choosing to home-school while they wait for an opening for their child,” she said, noting that the DES has approved 120 applications for students to be educated at home this year.
However, as home-schooling has increased in popularity, there are more readily available curriculum providers, online schools and accessible educational resources. Spencer also pointed out that home-schooling can also be a solution for children who need additional support, since the curriculum can be tailored to provide faster or slower learning, depending on the needs of students.
And with a larger home-school community in Cayman, there is more opportunity for interaction. Spenser said that over the last year, home-schooled students have gone on a variety of field trips together. They have also taken part in sports and games, even fielding a home-school team at the inter-primary school athletics day, with the relay team coming in second.
DES Director Mark Ray attended a recent event organised by parents in the home-school community, where he congratulated the first home-school ‘graduating class’ and spoke about the many ways the DES can work with home-schoolers to provide access to resources
Spencer noted some of the accomplishments of home-schooled students, one of whom was among the NCFA finalist for Butterfield Musician of the Year; another placed first at the Rotary Club Science Fair, and one was among the ten finalists in the Rubis Top Student competition. Many others have participated in community musicals, represented the Cayman Islands nationally in their sport, or are taking college-level courses while still in middle school.
This year for the first time, twelve home-schoolers participated in the Junior Achievement: Economics for Success programme, which is taught in schools and organised by the Chamber of Commerce.
“At times, parents will need to be creative with how they meet the needs of their children,” Spencer said. “Earlier this year, several families expressed their desire to have a group Physical Education class. With no gymnasium to hold the class and no PE teacher, the group made their own PE class by renting space at Kings Sports Centre and running a parent-led class for up to 20 students each week.”
See here for more about home-schooling in the Cayman Islands.
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Category: Education, Local News
School vouchers for parents are the answer. Government would save over 50% for each child.
When will people start to realize the problems of today is that there are too many people? We the people can not see ourselves as the problem or even as a problem. I think China is still working on a solution since it is obvious no one else is. One way or another the fix is coming and it won’t be pretty for most of us people. Just saying.
You do realize that birth rates are dropping across the globe right? Not just in the west but in other countries like china and India.China’s 1 child policy was a disaster for their country. No one should try to emulate it.
I have been forced to put my child into public school as our one child family cannot afford to live on one salary. How I miss the homeschooling environment – full force to you guys!
How much is painting over the entire Government hospital costing just for the sake of the rebranding? We could have finished CHHS with that money probably.
Do they have a peripatetic exorcist on call just in case?
According to Kathleen Spencer, a local parent involved in Cayman’s home-school network: “Both public and private schools in Grand Cayman have reached capacity and have wait lists.”
Government schools have wait lists!
WAIT LISTS??!! What the hell??? Is this true??
If it is true we have a problem! This is not an amusement park ride or a sushi restaurant on Friday night. We are talking about one of the most vital and essential services that government is responsible for providing. Yet more evidence of the utter ineptitude and impotence of the Panton-PACTless Clown Car.
The Clown Car is failing the people of the Cayman Islands!
It would be bad enough if failure in education was their only failure. Every check the wait list for important diagnostics at HSA? Patients having to tolerate pain and discomfort and deteriorating health while they wait weeks for a procedure to diagnose a condition so they can receive proper treatment. People have to endure weeks of anxiety waiting for a diagnosis so a potentially devastating condition such as cancer is ruled in or ruled out.
THIS IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!
If the members of the Clown Car had to depend on HSA for all their health care needs, you can damn well wager that they would not have to wait weeks for vital procedures and if they did, they would simply shell out a bit of their lavish salary to go overseas for medical attention, because they can afford it. However the poor working person with just bare bones insurance or the retiree with paltry CINICO is locked into using HSA. While on the subject, has anyone ever seen the Premiere or his ministers in an HSA waiting room, waiting hours and hours to see a doctor or have a test? Just wondering.
Have any of the children of Clown Car members been put on a wait list for a place in a government school? Can’t see that happening; but if that was the case, they could buy a seat at a private school. Because they can afford it. But the poor working people are locked into sending their children to government schools.
Where is Panton while his circus falls apart? Where are the respective ministers?
The failures of the school system and the failures of HSA to provide an acceptable level of services should be a wake up call for the people of these islands. It is well past the time to demand the resignation of the Premiere and Cabinet. It is well past time to have any faith that that are competent to fix the problems. Time to dissolve this government and see if the people can pick a better lot next time around. I can hardly imagine we could do worse.
Yes and you have to pay if you want to be on a private school’s waitlist, and if they don’t have space because you don’t go to the right church etc then they keep your money, ponzi scheme.
I came to Cayman as a teenager in the 1980s, the child born abroad of Caymanian parents. The Caymanian public school students at that time were articulate, they were engaging, they were eager, they were bright and the vast majority went on to have successful careers in tourism, finance, law, medicine. The teachers and headmasters of the lone public high school in those days were mostly from the UK. They demanded, and at the same time taught, respect, hard work, discipline. Fast forward to the 90s when local politicians started capitalizing on Caymanian fear of being overtaken by expats in the work force. They promised to make expats take their foreign born kids out of the public school system and keep government funded schooling for locals only. They promised Caribbean teachers and curriculum in the public school system. We ate it all up. In the 30 plus years since, have Caymanian children benefitted from segregating the children of expats out of the public school system? Have scores improved? Not for the majority of our kids. Public education, paid for by our tax dollars, has been shown by the Auditor General to cost as much as private school education. Yet public school kids leave public education unable to compete for employment, or placement in tertiary education. The experiment has failed. Terribly! Bring back UK teachers who teach our kids how to succeed in the wider world at the next level. We have a unique opportunity here in Cayman and we’re squandering it. We are spending hundreds of millions on public school education, for a few thousand Caymanian students each year. What other Caribbean country can say that? Caymanian public school students should be among the best and the brightest. So why aren’t they? Caymanians need to demand better for their tax dollars.
Point of order… we actually spend 60% more per pupil in public education than the average cost of private schools per pupil!
I thought a new school opened up in Sept . Is it Island school?? They could pick up the slack. Or home school has increase because of the high school fees in Cayman?
The family unit is much more broken than it was in the 80’s.
Buildings have no bearing on the quality of education. Garbage in, garbage out.
Bring back UK standards and educators!
The private schools are doing everything they can to help, but govt doesn’t make it easy for them. People complain about the cost of private school, but in a report from CIG it costs Govt about $20k per student per year. And yet everyone expects the private schools to give away spaces at low or no cost, when the private schools are paying massive costs for staff, utilities, materials, and rent. The quality of education at most of the better rated schools is excellent, hence the waiting lists. If govt made their teachers accountable it might help restore faith in the government schools.
The public schools administration vulture is sick and warped.
For teachers, parents and pupils.
God help us.
If they don’t care or try from the top how can the little sods make it out educated?
How does the Expat argument arise??? The table has 86 being Caymanian which is 60%, or are you all ready to admit that there are more Expat-Caymanians than you think !?!?
Yes they will flip flop very quickly on issue of who is eligible to call themselves “Caymanian”, depending on the context of the issue at hand.
Public schools would improve exponentially by reintegrating the schools. The problem is, the public schools standard has fallen so much, which expats would want to send their kids there?
Less than zero, bobo
the ones that get paid $6 an hour
“For children who are dependents of ex-pat workers, their work permit will state that their dependents have to attend school.”
Dependents of expat professionals working in finance can afford to send their kids to private schools. The issue here is that more and more expats working in lower paying jobs are bringing their kids to Cayman with them and home schooling them because they cannot afford the private schools on island. This is a fairly new practice, as historically lower income expats would leave their kids in their home country and send money home to school them. Ultimately, it is the Department of Education Services’ responsibility to ensure that these kids are receiving a quality education from the home schooling they are receiving.
Honestly, I don’t even need to cite the lack of space as why I’d pursue homeschooling. Just look at the price. St. Ignatius and Cayman Prep cost almost the same as university programs do, and we haven’t even started talking about schools like CIS. I went to Catholic and even when I was there and the school was supposedly the best school on island (which is laughable), but they were cheaper than they are today. Now I’d be paying all kinds of crazy money for a mediocre education and for my kids to be exposed to the garbage associated with the Catholic church. No thanks.
Before I spent my money for my children to be 1 of 25 in a class, I’m taking that same money and paying for a locally qualified teacher to teach my 3 kids and the 2 children of another close friend. The student to teacher ratio is low, my kids do the same curriculum as their peers in school, our schedules fit together seamlessly and I ensure they still get social opportunities with their peers by enrolling them in extra-curriculars like Little League and summer camps.
geee almost like this idea of increasing the populating while not increasing the associated services like public transport, public education, healthcare etc is a stupid idea bound to failure.
Schools, roads, water, sewer, public transportation, police, the dump, and so on.
Third world at best.
USA far right conservative Baptist and Evangelical ministries look at expansion markets like the Cayman Islands and drool at the home school indoctrination potential. Cults like the Institute of Basic Life Principals (IBLP) will send their science-phobic alt-narrative divine creationist curriculum workbooks for free. A terrible disservice to young people.
As usual, I fail to understand the obvious. Many countries round the world face the same problem. They solve it simply – and not by constantly building new schools costing megabucks. They double up on their class schedules. First group – 6.00 am – noon. Second group 12.30 pm – 6.30 pm. Problem solved. It also uses the very expensive buildings 13+ hours per day, and not 7+ (with them remaining empty for 15-16 hours a day)
And think about how the traffic problems will ease over the day.
Of course, I’m kinda thinking outside the box – a serious challenge to most in our beloved bureaucracy.
Yes, school shifts would really help our migrant kids earn back their keep working nightshifts at our many snack food packaging plants. /s
which high school students do you see packing food or working in the night on a weekday… just wondering cause you’re acting as if our youth actually take up jobs when they’re not in school… very unlikely. Very untrue.
/s = sarcasm
When I was a schoolgirl, our school had 2 shifts – morning and afternoon. Saturday was also a school day. Some periods we would leave home for 8am starting classes, another time we would walk home after 5 pm. In winter time it was dark at 8am an 5 pm., but I grew up in the safest country in the world. Guess what was the name of that country.
North Korea
Great comment. Common sense solutions aren’t common in Cayman
Common sense is uncommon in the Cayman Islands.
It was very common until the new caymanians and expatriate experts arrived !
Can I make you a deal on the Brooklyn Bridge?
You are not looking at your idea holistically. parents from the eastern districts will have to get their students up and on the road even earlier than they do now. Unless the parents who drop their children to school will have the same schedules as the students , which is highly unlikely your idea will not work. It is great to think outside the box but it has to be realistic. I think the remedy is more schools, preferably private schools even though it will be expensive. Perhaps government and the rich and famous among could put less effort into building condos and put it in schools.
Schools arent profitable, so investors and developers will never be philanthropic.
Its the same reason that affordable housing isnt built.
Profits and returns on investments drives them here and pretty much everywhere now.
While they are at it I wish the education ministry would contract more U.K. , teachers and get rid some of the spiteful hateful untrained ones especially from our neighbor to the east. It appears as if the ministry is only recruiting from there and they are not getting top quality. Why parents will accept this is beyond understanding. Also try to encourage our own young adults to become teachers. Back in the 60s, 70. 80, we had so many qualified caymanian teachers! We need that again.
The education ministry also needs to scuttle the CXC rubbish ( kill 2 birds with one stone) and get back to GCSE GCE and Cambridge Exams if that is still available. The negining of the decline in education began with the introduction of CXC. It is not fit for purpose.
Population that has shot up in the last decade. Apart from 2 new high school buildings what has government done? No new schools.
The wealthy expat has Cayman International school (annual fees extortionate). Montessori’s expanding, but they don’t go beyond grade7. Govt really should be ashamed encouraging segregation by forcing expats into private school (or home schooling) for decades.
Seems homeschooling is the way to go given how expensive the private schools are and how crap the public ones are, if you can send your kid to a public one.
And homeschools will not have bullying, violence and drugs
6:25, Though there might be some child abuse with untrained teachers teaching.
Social interaction is an important aspect of education too.
Not necessarily. Maybe fewer exorcism rituals and forced holy fluid drinking.
Honestly, the private schools are not absolutely amazing either. I went to both Catholic and Prep and the quality of education you get for a small fortune is a joke. They have no right to be charging what they do. There is no value for money there. If I’m going to spend that kind of money on the primary and secondary education of my kids, I expect a lot more in return.
The world need road diggers as well
Caymanians don’t dig ditches. We are an entitled people.
I beg to differ,my kids went to Catholic and a grandchild just graduated from Catholic and all did very well. We also have to factor in home-life, being supporting of our child/children and their school, showing up to reporting sessions and PTAS, aptitude, Behavior etc. etc. we only get out what we put in.
Not to mention the ‘helpers’ that suddenly find themselves as teachers!
When they can barely read, write, pronounce English.
Nannies/cleaners/cooks/personal shoppers/personal assistant/teachers.
The Filipinos are made to work up to 100 hours a week for their expatriate masters.
You can spot them at Camana Bay daily.
another fine caymanian mess.
school system here is a racist, expensive joke….where kid are left to suffer.
any comment mrs governor???
you brought your kids with you right? CHOICES!
This is the issue that expat parents here on work permits should have considered before signing contracts.
The deficiencies in the education system are well noted online.
Expatriation is free.
So you decided to have kids but you don’t want to pay for them? It’s up to the government ???
We have a totally dysfunctional education system here.
But we have money for private jet terminals? 😭 😢 😿
Mrs. Governor just arrived. She has to figure out the mess first but we should not go running to father (Charles) every time we have a problem.
Time to put on our big boy pants.
Thanks for the laughs! The big boy and bug girl pants wearers will continue the same trajectory as they have for decades.
Time for direct rule.
Time for Jah Rule.
7:29, Pay attention. We already have a form of Jah Rule here. Just look at the God from West Bay, McKeeva.
the people wearing the big boy pants cant even get a functioning public bus service running.
Kenny afraid of the drivers too!