From:TheBahamasWeekly.com
“Our teachers deserve the best we have to offer," says Jeffrey Lloyd
By FNM South Beach Candidate, Jeffrey L. Lloyd
Jan 15, 2017 - 7:48:29 PM
Nassau, Bahamas - Free National Movement (FNM) South Beach candidate
Jeffrey Lloyd proposed that a reform of the country’s education system
must begin with restoring the honour and value with which teachers were
once revered in this society.
This, he said, should include amongst other things, adequate compensation, respect, and the overall treatment they receive.
Lloyd,
who retired from his 42-year media and talk show career last Friday,
January 13, 2017, told a radio audience, while appearing as a guest on
Carlton Smith “Let’s Talk ‘Live’, that “our teachers deserve the best we
have to offer.”
“Studies across the globe have concluded
that if there is one indispensable component in the success of students
and pupils – although there are many very important factors that cannot
be overlooked - is the quality of teaching and teachers. That is why, a
reformed educational system must invest in the training, re-training and
ongoing development of teachers,” Lloyd said.
“We always talk
about wanting the best and brightest of our students graduating from
high school to choose a teaching career, just as they are attracted
first in most instances to other professions such as medicine, law or
engineering. Well, we have pay and respect them as if they are the best
and brightest, and make teaching, through its reputation and beneficial
value, an attractive option for them.
“Look at how we treat
the many dedicated, qualified and committed teachers in the present
system, who labour in over-crowded classrooms, with inferior or
inadequate resources, which, in turn, dampen, if not destroy, their
enthusiasm, commitment and interest. This cannot continue, and under the
next FNM Government, will not be allowed to continue. We must and will
raise the profile of teaching and teachers,” he went on to say.
Lloyd’s
comments seem to be supported by a June, 2016, article in the
universally respected Economist magazine, entitled Teaching the
Teachers, which noted that “many factors shape a child’s success, but in
schools nothing matters as much as the quality of teaching.’
The
article also went on to state that “great teaching has long been seen
as an innate skill. But reformers are showing that the best teachers are
made, not born.”
The FNM has often stated that ‘education is the foundation of the success of this country.”
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