‘UDP punishing students’
(CNS):The current government is punishing the country’s high school students in its efforts to vilify him over his goal to develop state-of-the-art high schools, the former education minister has said. Opposition Leader Alden McLaughlin said the continued delay over the completion of the high schools, and in particular John Gray, was a political choice. Last week the current minister, Rolston Anglin, said he could not say with any certainty when the new George Town based high school would be finished as he did not know if government would have the money. However, McLaughlin described this as ‘a red herring’ and said it was nothing to do with money but simply a desire to use the schools as a weapon against him.
In the wake of the dispute with the original contractor, Tom Jones, Anglin had stated that government did have the money for the schools and that the dispute between government and the general contractor was down to mismanagement and not a financial problem as the contractor had claimed.
Nevertheless, since the negotiations with the UK over the three year plan to get public finances on track, the current education minister has been blaming the FCO for the lack of funding to finish the high schools.
McLaughlin said, however, that given that government had just drawn down on the $185 million loan and had begun other capital work projects it was obvious there was money but the schools were just not a priority for the UDP government . He said that the conditions at John Gray were “truly depressing” for the students, fuelling learning problems and anti-social behaviour. The opposition leader noted that it was in the interests of the students to provide them with proper learning environments but in order to “avoid monuments to Alden”, he said the government was deliberately stalling completing the schools and punishing the students as a result.
“The reality is completing the schools has never been a priority for the government,” he said. “The question they have asked themselves is do we spend money completing the high schools started by the last administration or pave people’s driving ways, build the Hurricane Hilton and start the primary school project instead.”
McLaughlin suggested that on top of the lack of political will to finish the schools, the dispute with the contractors, the introduction of a new project management team and sub-contractors as well as changes to the design have also caused delays and increased in costs.
The decision not to build kitchens, which were meant to serve the hurricane shelter as well as the school population, and bus food in instead also proved to be a poor decision, the opposition leaders said. Government is now adding stand alone kitchens to the sites, which he says may prove more costly that the so called gold plated kitchens which had been included in the original plans.
“All of this will no doubt be laid at my feet,” he said, as he added with a note of sarcasm, that he didn’t think there was a child even in Africa now that didn’t know he had ‘spent too much money on the schools’ trying to provide better learning environments for the children in Cayman.
The important issue, however, the opposition leader noted, was that two years on the government was further away from the opening dates of the schools than when he had left office last May and the country still had no date for when the schools would be finished. McLaughlin said it was almost a certainty that John Gray would not be finished before the current government’s term in office was up in May 2013 and he suspected that if there was a way to avoid the opening of Clifton Hunter before then the government would do so.
The aim of “continuing to beat me up with the schools”, he said, was leading to government missing the crucial point that in order to improve educational standards and better outcomes for the country’s students they needed schools which are conducive to learning. “We should get on and give our kids an opportunity to do well,” he added.
Category: Politics
I wonder which one of those politicians sends their kids to public schools..
The moral of this story: why do anything about it, when it doesn’t affect them?
You took the words right out of my mouth.
Of course these people (politicians etc.) don't care about the public schools, they don't send their kids to them. Sad, but true.
As a Caymanian, I am quite offended and feel that all is being done to further smother (remove) my fellow born-n-raised Caymanians; in ALL sectors of the islands it seems.
Is Cayman worth saving for anyone other than the Caymanians? If they can’t/won’t do it no one will and it will go the way of all the many other failed countries. Has failing made T&C a better place for all to live? Think about this for just a moment. If all things Caymanian are given to the Caymanian people what exactly do they have? Can they survive on this thing alone with no outside help? Would you all like to try?
You know, when surfing the internet my computer tends to get a bit sluggish at times.
Solution?
"Tools" / "Internet Options" / "Clear History"
(I also ensure that the "Cache" box is ticked as I perform the exercise.)
Thereafter my system is faster, sharper and provides a much better experience all around.
Cayman needs a "Clear History" button for our standing political parties.
– Whodatis
It is not only students that the UDP is punishing, they are punishing us all!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Crime and our school system are clearly linked. So when did our recent Caymanian robbers leave school? What were the grades of the two criminals? Did they get lost in our system? Why didn’t these two young men have jobs? This would have been unheard of a decade ago! So please tell me, was it our schools that failed these boys?
Newspaper reported:Jordon Bryson Powell, 18, and Jonathan Samuel Welcome, 17, are both named on five charges: attempted murder, two attempted robberies, possession of an unlicensed firearm and possession of a prohibited weapon – a canister of pepper spray.
Of course the UDP has forgotten the students of this country by delibrately refusing to finish the schools that Mr. Mclaughlin started. But I am amazed as to why we would expect anything else. The leader of the UDP can hardly read his own name let along write it and his ministers are blindly following and supporting him no matter what hare-brained ideas he come up with. The bunch of them are nothing but a national disgrace. Mr. Mclaughlin is not pompous as some of you stated, he is an educated confident man – there is a difference and that is a good thing. The educated one among them could have his confidence if they would start thinking for themselves instead of blindly following him day after day. Aren’t they ashamed of themselves. I don’t know about all of you, but I am totally embarrassed by them. Let us do
whatever is necessary to run them all out of Government and out of the country if possible.
I agree with Alden here completely.
For decades Cayman has ignored proper infrastructure and proper education facilities.
When you got someone with Granny Wits leading a bunch of highly qualified “idiots” who wish to have a nation of illiterate voters that can easily be swayed to vote for them, what do you think their priority is going to be?
I do not agree with the really unnecessarily extravagant projects of the past or present governments. Instead of completing the in progress and proposed projects as planned, can they not be scaled back and completed for current demand with flexible expansion capability as required? State of the art recording studio should not only be shelved but totally discarded.
I agree we needed more class rooms but the scale of these projects are colossal , big and expensive dosen’t equal highly educated, it’s all about the teacher and the parents encouraging the child, teen which wants to learn.
I’ll bet when these
enormous projects are completed , we could bring third world kids to cayman and they would run circles around the air conditioned elite on education but not the BB apps.
We need the two HEROS that beat down the robbers…to beat down the bickering children we have in the MLA. Beat some sense into them.
While I agree in principle with most of the things expressed about the Govt. needing to put education as a priority in the budget, we seem to forget that no amount of first-class schools will make a difference, if the parents do notfirst spend quality time with their children to guide and instill proper values in their hearts, so that they will have a thirst for knowledge and a desire to learn and excel, so that they can go on to doing successful things, have good careers, and make their lives better, instead of being left behind. There are many kids all over the world, in Africa, Asia, and yes, even in other islands in the Caribbean that are far worse off than we are, who do not have first-class facilities and yet they are taught to value education. These kids gladly walk miles in the hot sun from their villages, to sit in dingy classrooms and learn. Some do not even get lunch, and still manage to learn on “hungry bellies”. Some kids have to do illegal child labor in certain countries, and as soon as they done working in the fields or on farms, they find the nearest classroom. Sometimes there is no classroom, just the shade of a tree, for them to sit under. The point it is, one can learn under less than ideal situations, if the will is there. We here have things very easy here in comparison, so instead of complaining about less than ideal standards in our schools, shift the priority to instilling in our kids the desire to learn.
Ok enough is enough this government need to stop playing this bleam game u are all hard a*** men act like it. There is no money to finish John Gray but you all want to start another project at Sir John A Cumber Primay School costing 10 Mil what for dont get me wrong i hold JACPS very close as a pass student and a parent of a child that went there but this is totally BS finish what has been started instead of finding project for your supports to get a big fat check.
We know money was never a problem for the PPM. They would just borrow more which is why we now have hundreds of millions in debt we must repay.
There millions of supremely educated children coming out of China, India, and Africa not because of high-tech schools but because thier parents have instilled in them the importance of education and push them to excel. 80% of education is decided at home. 20% is decided by the quality of the teachers. The impact of top-of-the-line kitchens, recording recording studios, etc is negligable.
Whereas you may think that Asians and Africans educate their children at home with 80% output. I would like to educate you that no one is schooled at home but in school and infrastructure must be there for education to suceed. I am sure you were about to say that also with little access of Asians and Africans to medical facilities few hospitals should be built. It is true that there is a role to be played by parents but the dominant role is that of education infrastructure.
If you truely believe your children’s educational success comes from how fancy thier educactional surroundings are, then I feel a great pitty for your children. Really the only aspects of the education infrastructure of import are quality of teachers and keeping reasonable class sizes.
Nothing has a larger impact on a students education than if they are dedicated students trying to maximize thier education vs simply attending. And that 100% comes from home.
You do not understand what the poster meant – it was not stated that 80% of the children are “home-schooled” in Asia and Africa. The poster was trying to say that education begins at home, like how you say charity begins at home, you understand? In other words, the success of the child, is 80% due to the parent who instills in the child the desire to learn, and 20% of the success is due to the teachers who actually do the teaching. If the desire to learn is not instilled by the parent, no amount of excellent teaching skills on the part of the teacher will help. Parents should not sit back and expect the teachers to work miracles if they themselves fail to spend quality time with their kids and teach them the value of learning in the first place and encourage them to excel at school. People forget that children learn by examples set by their parents.
NO MONEY TO FINISH SCHOOL. What a joke. when are we going to give the youths of this place a chance to learn. no money for them ,but millions can be sent to cayman brac to build a hurricane shelter that is not needed. and pave the PRIVATE ROADS AND PARKING LOTS, which are privately own,take security guard to KENYA , TAKE ALL THIER friends on world tours, alloow MICHEAL RYAN TO KEEP MILLIONS that he owe the goverment. IF i can remember correctly the last time fees were raised on us cayman brac was excempted. paying LESS FEES THAN US BUT GETTING MORE THAN US. I will start to look for new canidates to vote for in the next election. You all are a BIG disappointment to us . thought PPM was bad but you all make them look like choir boys
No money to finish the High Schools but $10M to spend on West Bay Primary. Our kids are suffering. John Gray is a disgrace. Kids going to school in construction site. It is so disorganised that they do not even know how to contact the students who left last year – to come back for their graduation. What a stupid idea anyway. I know of kids coming up to final exams whose grades have gone down to fail this year in spite of having good grades in previous years. We need to look at the quality of our teachers. Apologies to those teachers who love the kids and do a great job. I am not referring to you. I just wish we had many more like you. UDP does not care about education. The only govt. to TRY to fix things in the past 20 or so years was the PPM and Mr. McLaughlin. Say what you like about him at least he tried. Maybe the cost was a bit extravagant but if the world recession had not happened, and the schools had been finished, our kids would be in a much better position today. I believe if you invest in education, you will receive a much greater return in that students are able to further their education, find jobs and not be hanging around robbing people or being a burden on social services. AND what happened to the vocational school? There’s no reason why students who are not academic cannot become chefs, mechanics, plumbers, etc. and earn a decent wage.
and the PPM campaign 2013 continues to ramp up!!!!
I’m not too bothered by the campaigning, it’s having to wait another two years to get rid of McKeeva and the UDP that’s eating me up inside.
I just hope everyone remembers the Cayman Islands was a whisker away from being forced by the UK toimpose income and other taxes to make up for the last PPM spending spree.
I like a number of things about the PPM, but god I hope they learned thier lesson about responsible handling of the countries finances last time and we don’t get a repeat of that.
Alden I agree with you 100%, they need to finish the schools, adopt the new system and start teaching our children the correct way. This current system is failing our children and it must be stopped now. Let every child work at his/her own pace and stop this method of pushing these children through the systems, without having any knowledge. They are failing our children and they should had given your new method a chance to prove itself. Alden keep pushing for improvements in our education, as you were and is the only Minister I see lately that has shown an interest in educating our children many, many years.
Anyone who thinks those new schools will solve the problems in the education system today isfoolish. The biggest problem with the system today is poor parenting! Congratulations to the few parents who are doing a good job with their children and are helping to support schools today. The benefits of effective home-school links are tremendous (and I am not talking about good PTAs now who raise funds and buy things for the schools). I mean a situation where every parent supports the school and promotes positive values at home. Until that is in place, we will not achieve much… not in a high tech school, not in a large school.
… But BEFORE anything else, the people of Cayman needs to take actions and to somehow find a way to put a dead STOP to the careless, ABUSIVE and tyrannical conduct of the Premier and the rest of the UDP.
We also need to forcefully have our Constitution amended to give the people more power over our Governments when we have this type of behavior in Govt. to deal with. Otherwise we, the people might as well run the country ourselves. I don’t think it could be any bigger mess.
The truth is though unfortunately, I see NO real hope in the salvaging of our country which was once dubbed "The islands time forgot", but I now re-dubbed, "The islands that HOPE forgot".
Sadly, IRON CLAD
While I agree in principle with most of the things expressed about the Govt. needing to put education as a priority in the budget, we seem to forget that no amount of first-class schools will make a difference, if the parents do not first spend quality time with their children to guide and instill proper values in their hearts, so that they will have a thirst for knowledge and a desire to learn and excel, so that they can go on to doing successful things, have good careers, and make their lives better, instead of being left behind. There are many kids all over the world, in Africa, Asia, and yes, even in other islands in the Caribbean that are far worse off than we are, who do not have first-class facilities and yet they are taught to value education. These kids gladly walk miles in the hot sun from their villages, to sit in dingy classrooms and learn. Some do not even get lunch, and still manage to learn on “hungry bellies”. Some kids have to do illegal child labor in certain countries, and as soon as they done working in the fields or on farms, they find the nearest classroom. Sometimes there is no classroom, just the shade of a tree, for them to sit under. The point it is, one can learn under less than ideal situations, if the will is there. We here have things very easy here in comparison, so instead of complaining about less than ideal standards in our schools, shift the priority to instilling in our kids the desire to learn.
No money to finish even one high school but millions to waste on luxury travel as well as lots of money for paving private parking lots on the Brac. Shows the priorities of these clowns.
While the Opposition leader’s comments do smack of extreme arrogance – he does havea point. This Government has consistently ignored the problems in our Education system. And many other social and economic issues. Figuratively fiddling away while Rome burns down to the ground.
Although the problems have been cumulative over the years – they now have the opportunity to make positive change. But as yet, they have squandered this chance and challenge. Instead, they have spent unimaginable amounts of money on wasteful travel and projects to appease constituents and cronies.
The Premier is quick to deny funding for Legal Aid, and also to bemoan the state of crime in our Islands – but what are he and his Ministers doing to address the root causes (poor education, unemployment, lack of training, poor parenting, poverty) of this rise in anti-social behaviour in our young people? A big fat NOTHING. As usual – it is all ranting and bellowing and hot air, and then they turn around and go back to their comfy lives not caring that their people are facing a real drop in their quality of life and scrambling to adjust.
While I truly feel we are between a rock and a hard place having to choose between McKeeva and Alden – I will take pomposity and arrogance that is at least coupled with education and integrity (Alden) over irrational, uneducated XXX grandstanding (I think we know who this refers to!)
The opposition leader noted that it was in the interests of the students to provide them proper learning environments but in order to "avoid monuments to Alden",he said the government was deliberately stalling completing the schools and punishing the students as a result…………..Alden just gave himself away with that statement,we now know that Mr Mclaughlin is all about name and fame and securing a plot in heroes square.God help us all.
Do you understand the word "sarcasm"?
Alden says what he means and means what he says, no in between or around the lane, you see it as sarcasm and it may appear that way but due to Mr Mclaughlin’s arrogant nature, i and others see him for who he is, don’t fall for Alden’s rhetoric, irony and sarcasm is only used by Mr Mclaughlin to fool people like yourself……..Be aware!!!!!!
They all are, politicians are all after the big job and are only interested in what they think will make the majority vote for them. Do get it twisted folks we are all just pawns in much bigger game then you expect. People talk about marching to get the UDP removed, it will never happen it will only be called an attempted Coup, Try going to the UK to complain about the current government and hey you never know they may be willing to remove him and put their own folks in place to start collecting taxes from the Cayman people. Everyone just needs to realize that the current government is here to stay at least until the next round of elections, after all it was your votes that put them in place.
Call Bush a dictator? ask people that grew up in Cuba or Haiti if they think Bush is a dictator. No, Hes not, he just as his own agenda like every other Politian out there.
So grin and bear it until the next round of elections, because right now there is nothing you can do
Just keeping it real….
UDP PUNISHING ENTIRE COUNTRY!!!
In EVERY WAY that is.
In my firmest opinion, the People must MARCH against the UDP and the Governor and get them OUT – Period.
Truly IRON CLAD
Iron Clad, I agree with your sentiment but marching does nothing. Even if enough Caymanians decided that they cared enough to show up, which it is clear they don’t, Mac would just go on ignoring them, as he is doing now. You might want to try something else, like talking to the people you respect and seeing if they will run for government, and then organizing like-minded people to do the same in other districts. Marching around won’t make Mac change his ways, but changing the government will change the Island. Think about that please. Your biggest problem if apathy amongst the Caymanians – they just don’t care enough about the Islands to bother doing anything about it.
It’s not all about you, dude.
Forget the buildings and construction contracts for buddies! Enough already with this political football.
We have a HUGE problem with the "Product" that is leaving our schools. "Books not Bricks!" Get real…. The problem with our education system is the bureaucracy from the education administration. I bet if you asked half a dozen sixteen year olds, they would not even know HOW to spell bureaucracy. Go on, try…..and then weep.