Is Hon Walwyn casting high unemployment blame on teachers?
He made this remark while speaking at the opening ceremony for a one-week training workshop for teachers on the subject of financial services on March 23, 2015 at the Elmore Stoutt High School.
“What we are trying to do in education particularly with the new subjects we are putting in place, we have to look at the world in which we are living now, not just locally but globally,” he said.
“We have to look at the fact that we have high unemployment among young people of the country and when I look at the unemployment in the country it is sort of a referendum on the education system. It says to me that we are not preparing the students in the way we should for the new world,” he said.
“We are essentially in education packaging something for local [and] global consumption. What is your product? Your product is your students. And you have to package them properly so that people can buy them,” he said.
“If you are in manufacturing and you’re producing something and the package isn’t right, doesn’t look attractive, doesn’t look like a good product, [people] won’t buy it,” he said, using an analogy to explain his point. “It is the same thing with the students...you are the persons who are responsible for packaging those students and if the packaging isn’t right then you have a problem,” he said.
The Minister said that if someone is selling an outdated product when the market has moved on, “you’re not going to get your product sold.”
“Our thinking has to change and the way we do education has to change and education now has to be more relevant to what is happening in the economy and that is what we are trying to do,” he said.
Pressure on Hon Walwyn
However, many have seen Hon Walwyn's statement as an excuse for failing to deliver on his campaign promise that he was going to get jobs for youth of the Virgin Islands- a promise that won him the support of the youth population at the 2011 general elections.
Unemployment among youth, however, is up in the territory.
And as election approaches, Hon Walwyn has been begging the support of businesses to help realise his promise to the many disheartened young people especially who had voted for him with the hope that they would be given employment.
"I ask that you give them a fair chance, mentor them and provide them the guidance that someone provided many of us when we first got the opportunity to earn a living," Hon Walwyn had urged participants of the Ministry of Education and Culture's Youth Apprentices Job Fair exhibition, which opened on Monday March 30, 2015 at Maria’s by the Sea.
It was claimed at the opening ceremony that some 108 youths were in the process of being recruited to 'get their feet in the doors' of businesses in the private sector of the Virgin Islands (VI).
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39 Responses to “Is Hon Walwyn casting high unemployment blame on teachers?”
he's right
Is he lying? We need politicians to tell it like it is and are willing to address the issues. We don't need good to great £$%^ that fail the kids in the long run.
go serve your veg food its your shift from on here with crap
not wasted but could have gone in the teachers pay check.
Seventeen more orientials on their way here to work; couldn't our young people be having some of these jobs too? Stop the crookishness and face reality and speak the truth.... them bringing in their friends to displace us. It shouldn't be tolerated.
There also seems to be an issue where everyone wants to work in a trust company, yet office work only suits certain people... Boat charters, Diving, hospitality are all major, major employers in the BVI's but there appears to be no training programmes, or desire amongst the local community to get people working in these fields?
I have interviewed 20+ people for one position because i was determined to employ and train up locals. I've tried to put in place training programes for my existing staff to help them progress, but the majority, i'm afraid to say, just are not interested. They've got their job, they've got their salary and they know that they are well protected by your, frankly Racist, labour laws so they sit back and take the micky knowing how hard it is to get rid of them again.
And THAT, my friends is why employers bring in staff from abroad. Stop moaning, stop making out you are victims because you are not. Anyone can do whatever they want, if they put the effort in.
To that I would add that surely the function of any Labour Department is to track where the jobs are, and to give feed back to and Educational Department to create educational tracks for people to qualify for those jobs. For years, we have imported skilled trades, but we don't really have a vocational school. For years, there have been jobs in the financial and legal sectors, but we don't really educate our people with the rigors those professions require. Instead, we opt to make our education easy, so everyone who goes graduates, when instead it is a disservice to our youth to do so, because, as many find out when they go on with their studies, their scholastic abilities leave something to be desired. As many can attest, few can write a coherent letter or express themselves cogently. These skills need to be taught and learned early. Sure, it is not easy but school should be a challenge not a walk in the park. There is no justifiable reason why a country with money like the BVIs should not be the leader in education in the Caribbean but that does not seem to be on the government's radar. Essentially, society has abdicated its responsibilities towards future generations by not insisting on continually improving its investment in education.
Flame away now
Putting stress on parents and students more time in the public school system. Yet have long time moved kids into the public school. They are to good for the same public school that um claimed to have fixed. People are watching you. " you can fool some of the people some of the time but you can't fool all the people all the time. time is coming.