标签： Barbados

On a recent Saturday, Barbados’ Division of Youth Affairs brought together emerging youth leaders from across the country at a capacity-building workshop held at the Radisson Aquatica, with a clear mission: to empower youth-led organizations to claim their central role in advancing national development.

Addressing the gathered participants, Senator Roshanna Trim opened by pushing back against the common narrative that youth development is solely a government responsibility. While she acknowledged that the state and relevant ministries carry a formal duty to nurture young people’s growth, she stressed that independent youth organizations fill an irreplaceable niche in communities nationwide. “Every community deserves the vibrancy, the creativity, and the innovation of young people,” Trim told the audience, arguing that local youth groups bring energy and fresh perspective that no government agency can replicate on its own.

Trim, 31, highlighted a unique strength that sets youth-led initiatives apart from established, older-led organizations: natural peer-to-peer relatability. Young people navigating the shared pressures of modern life naturally connect with one another, she explained, creating a level of trust that crosses generational gaps. She noted that even a decade and a half difference in age can create noticeable divides in communication styles and cultural context, making youth-led outreach far more effective for engaging younger demographics. The core message, she emphasized, was for young leaders to recognize this inherent power rather than fixating on formal titles, and to focus on the tangible impact of their work driving social transformation.

Sharing decades of on-the-ground experience alongside Trim was Sophia Greaves-Broome, community development executive and CEO of the Pinelands Creative Workshop, who has spent 30 years leading civil society and multi-sectoral community programs. Greaves-Broome offered blunt, practical guidance for young leaders looking to build lasting, impactful organizations, focusing heavily on long-term sustainability in an increasingly challenging funding landscape.

She stressed that organizational longevity starts with a clear, inclusive vision that can inspire others to commit their time and energy. “It must be an inclusive vision where people can say, ‘I can align to that, I can respect that, I can work with that, I can give up my time for that,’” she explained, adding that deep personal sacrifice and unwavering belief in one’s mission are non-negotiable for lasting success.

Greaves-Broome also warned that the traditional donor model that once supported community nonprofits has shifted dramatically, evolving into a hyper-competitive space where funders demand measurable return on investment. To adapt, she urged young leaders to move beyond rigid, outdated organizational structures and embrace flexible social enterprise models that can generate sustainable revenue. She added that leaders must cultivate a habit of constant self-evaluation, regularly reexamining and restructuring their organizations to stay relevant in a rapidly changing social and economic environment.

Closing her remarks, Greaves-Broome reminded the emerging leaders that meaningful community transformation takes consistent, long-term effort, encouraging them to prioritize ongoing personal learning and maintain political neutrality to keep their work focused on serving the public good.

A tense town hall gathering held this Thursday brought Barbadian parents face-to-face with education leaders, as families pushed for clear answers about how new continuous assessment rules will protect individual student achievement under the government’s planned primary-to-secondary school placement overhaul. The proposed framework is set to replace the long-standing Barbados Secondary School Entrance Examination, with continuous assessment set to make up half of a student’s final placement score moving forward.

One of the most vocal critics at the meeting was Raphael Saul, a father whose 9-year-old child is set to become part of the first cohort to enter the new system when it launches this September. Saul clarified that he does not oppose project-based learning or dismiss the importance of building collaborative skills among young students, but he warned that tying group work to high-stakes secondary placement creates an unfair risk: a hardworking, high-contributing student could see their overall score dragged down by underperformance from other group members.

When Saul asked officials to clarify whether only individual contributions would count toward a student’s continuous assessment score, or if group results would also factor in, Deputy Chief Education Officer for Planning and Development Reverend Stephen Scott confirmed that both components would be weighted and combined for the final grade. Scott drew a parallel between this new structure and the School-Based Assessment (SBA) model already used for Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) English courses, where students work together on early research stages before completing a final standalone individual assignment. Under that system, students earn marks for both the group collaboration phase and their individual final work, Scott explained.

Saul pushed back on this framing, arguing that while group projects have clear value as a classroom teaching tool, they have no place in a high-stakes assessment that determines which secondary school a child will attend. “I am very on the same page with you as it relates to group projects and their value,” Saul said. “The challenge I have, though… is that a child who may work well individually and who may even contribute well in his or her group can end up in a situation… where the group’s grade ends up reducing their overall score.” He added that the current structure runs counter to the Ministry of Education’s own stated goal of gaining a more accurate, holistic picture of each student’s individual ability, and recommended that only individual work be counted toward the continuous assessment placement score, with group activities retained solely for learning purposes.

Acting Chief Education Officer Julia Beckles pushed back on concerns, stressing that the assessed projects are not last-minute, one-off assignments, but rather the end result of a structured two-year learning journey. “When we talk about the projects, we are talking about the end of a process,” Beckles explained. “All along the process, the child is being taught. Yes, the child is being evaluated. The teacher is taking note of strengths, taking note of weaknesses, and more importantly, the teacher now has the time to try to assist in the child’s improvement in the areas where weaknesses have been identified.” She emphasized that students do not get thrown into unguided groups for assessment; instead, they build collaboration skills incrementally with ongoing teacher support over the full two-year period.

Acting Deputy Chief Education Officer Denise Charles urged parents to reframe their understanding of the new assessment model, noting that it is rooted in project-based learning rather than the traditional, rigid school projects many families are familiar with. “What our students will be doing will not just be projects. It is project-based learning. The emphasis is on creativity, individual expression,” Charles said. Unlike traditional assessments that only allow written reports or static presentations, Charles explained that students will be able to showcase their knowledge through diverse, creative formats including videos, music, dance, and visual art. “It is going to be far more dynamic and creative than that,” she added.

Charles framed the new system as a reflection of a modernizing Barbados, designed to equip students with the soft skills—collaboration, creativity, critical problem-solving—that are increasingly demanded in a rapidly changing global workforce. “This is not the Barbados of the Common Entrance exam as we know it,” she said. “This is a different Barbados.”

Saul’s concern about group grading was not the only question raised at the meeting. Other parents asked why the new assessment will start as early as Class Three, and voiced particular worry about the first cohort, widely referred to as “COVID kids” who began their primary education through remote learning and have already faced significant educational disruption. By the end of the town hall, multiple parents reported leaving the meeting without the clear answers they had sought, saying key questions were not addressed directly by education officials.

Barbados’ Ministry of Education has laid out the most comprehensive framework to date for its upcoming overhaul of the primary-to-secondary school transition process, replacing the decades-old single high-stakes entrance examination with a two-stage, multi-year assessment designed to reduce student pressure and capture a broader range of skills. The detailed plan was presented by Deputy Chief Education Officer for Planning and Development Reverend Stephen Scott during a public transformation town hall held Thursday evening, part of a series of community consultations launched after the government confirmed it would scrap the traditional Barbados Secondary School Entrance Examination.

At the core of the proposed new system is a 50-50 split between continuous classroom-based assessment and standardized national testing, spread across the final two years of primary education—Class Three and Class Four. Unlike the previous model that tied secondary school placement entirely to performance on a single high-pressure exam day, this approach is structured to let students build on their skills over time and showcase abilities beyond what can be measured through traditional pen-and-paper testing.

“By moving away from a one-day high-stakes exam and extending assessment across two full years, we are giving students space to demonstrate strengths that go beyond rote learning,” Scott explained during the meeting. “This process lets them improve their performance incrementally, and those improvements are reflected in their final results. It also prioritizes the three key skills we want all young people to develop: creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking.” The model also addresses the common issue of students underperforming on exam day due to stress, illness or other temporary factors that do not reflect their actual ability, he added.

The continuous assessment portion, which accounts for half of a student’s final placement score, centers on two in-school curriculum projects. The Ministry of Education will curate three project options for all primary schools, from which each campus will select two that align with their programming. One project will be completed during the first two academic terms of Class Three, while the second will be finished in the first two terms of Class Four.

Scott emphasized that all project work will be completed exclusively during scheduled class time at students’ own primary schools, eliminating any risk of outside help or inequity from differing home resources. “These are not homework assignments to be taken home. We have built dedicated time into the school timetable for students to work on these projects and receive in-person guidance from their teachers,” he stated. While students will collaborate in groups on the core project work, each student will also complete an individual component that contributes directly to their personal assessment score, ensuring collective work does not mask individual growth.

To guarantee consistent, fair grading across all schools, the ministry will provide standardized grading rubrics that outline exactly how points are awarded for each component of the projects. Ministry education officers, serving as assistant examiners, will conduct on-site visits during project work to offer guidance to teachers, oversee the process, and moderate grading to ensure all schools adhere to the same criteria.

The remaining 50% of a student’s final score comes from four national standardized tests, scheduled at the end of each of the two final primary school years. At the end of Class Three’s third term, students will sit examinations in English and Science. They will then complete Mathematics and Social Studies/Civics exams at the end of the third term of Class Four. Unlike the current Common Entrance exam, which requires students to travel to unfamiliar secondary school campuses to sit their tests, all four standardized exams will be administered at the students’ own primary schools, a change designed to reduce anxiety and keep students in a familiar, comfortable learning environment.

“Students won’t have to navigate an unfamiliar testing location,” Scott noted. “They stay in their own school, where they feel at ease, and we deploy trained staff to make sure the testing process runs smoothly for everyone.”

The existing parental choice system for secondary school placement will remain in place under the new model. Parents will still be able to rank their preferred secondary schools for their children, and final placements will be determined by a combination of the student’s combined score from continuous assessment and standardized testing, plus the number of available spots at each institution.

Beyond changing the placement process, the new model is designed to create a comprehensive student profile that helps secondary schools better support incoming students from day one. “We don’t want this process to be unnecessarily stressful for our students,” Scott said. “We’ve built it to be as comfortable as possible over the two-year period, because our goal isn’t just to rank students—it’s to capture their full range of skills, talents and abilities to build a complete profile that helps their new secondary school meet their needs.”

Thursday’s town hall is just one part of the ministry’s ongoing public consultation period. Parents, educators and other stakeholders are invited to submit feedback on the proposed framework before it is finalized and implemented.